UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
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GIFT   OF   CAPT.   AND    MRS. 
PAUL   MCBRIDE  PERIGORD 


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THE    UNSEARCHABLE    RICHES 


Works   of 
MALCOLM  JAMES  McLEOD,  D.D. 

The  Unsearchable  Riches. 

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A  Comfortable  Faith. 

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The  Culture  of  Simplicity. 

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Earthly  Discords  and  How  to  Heal 
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Heavenly    Harmonies    for   Earthly 
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The 
Unsearchable  Riches 


By 

Malcolm  James  McLeod 

Minister  of  Collegiate  Church  of  St.  Nicholas 
New  York  City 


New  York         Chicago         Toronto 

Fleming   H.  Revell   Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


-^      O)     /Tl     ,*»     .<:       .-. 

-^  ^  *J  ^  --.  (5 


Copyright,  191 1,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  123  N.  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto :  25  Richmond  St.,  W. 
London :  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:  loo  Princes  Street 


To  my  Pasadena  Friends; 

Being  echoes  of  words 

Once  delivered  to  them^ 

And  received  in  patience  and  love. 


CONTENTS 


O 

OX) 


S 


^riArie,! 

c 

PAGE 

I. 

The  Riches  of  Grace  . 

II 

II. 

The  Riches  of  the  Messenger    . 

13 

III. 

The  Riches  of  the  Message 

53 

IV. 

The  Riches  of  Forgiveness 

75 

V. 

The  Riches  of  Experience  . 

93 

VI. 

The  Riches  of  Power  . 

117 

VII. 

The  Riches  of  Trust  . 

141 

VIII. 

The  Riches  of  Encouragement  . 

161 

IX. 

The  Riches  of  Refuge 

181 

X. 

The  Riches  of  Influence    . 

203 

XI. 

The  Riches  of  Rest 

219 

^ 


THE    RICHES   OF   GRACE 


"Unto  me  who  am  less  than  the  least  of  all  saints 
was  this  grace  given,  to  preach  unto  the  Gentiles  the 
unsearchable  riches  of  Christ."— Ephesians  3:8. 


THE    UNSEARCHABLE 
RICHES 

I 
THE  RICHES  OF  GRACE 

THERE  is  no  work  equal  in  range  or 
richness  to  the  great  work  of  the  holy 
ministry.  The  New  Testament  gives 
to  it  a  peerless,  an  imperishable  place.  "  It  is 
the  best  calling  but  the  worst  trade  in  the 
world,"  wrote  Matthew  Henry.  Dr.  Cuyler 
once  said  that  no  royal  throne  was  loftier  or 
more  lustrous  than  the  pulpit  of  Jesus  Christ. 
When  Dr.  Carey  was  labouring  in  India,  and 
his  son,  Felix,  had  accepted  the  office  of  am- 
bassador to  the  King  of  Burmah,  Carey  said 
one  day  to  a  friend,  "  Felix  has  lapsed  into 
an  ambassador  " ;  meaning  that  to  forsake  the 
exalted  vocation  of  the  minister  for  even  the 
highest  earthly  court  was  a  descent.  The  man 
who  is  preaching  Christ  is  handling  fabulous 
treasure — "  unsearchable  riches  "  our  text 
says.  He  should  be  a  man  of  native  gifts  and 
11 


12     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

commanding  equipment.  Not  a  few  there  are 
who  beheve  that  the  gravest  danger  threaten- 
ing the  cause  of  organised  Christianity  to-day 
in  America  is  the  decline  of  the  pulpit.  Be- 
cause when  the  pulpit  declines  the  channel  of 
inspiration  is  clogged  and  the  fertilising  river 
has  no  flow.  God  has  entrusted  His  heavenly 
manifesto  to  human  lips. 

The  history  of  the  Church  is  enveloped  in  a 
blaze  of  pulpit  glory.  There  are  Paul  and 
Tertullian  and  Chrysostom  and  Basil  and 
Savonarola  and  Luther  and  Latimer  and  Cal- 
vin and  Knox  and  Wyclif  and  Hooker  and 
Jeremy  Taylor  and  Baxter  and  Tillotson  and 
Fenelon  and  Mason  and  Massillon  and  Robert 
South  and  Robert  Hall  and  Edward  Irving 
and  Newman  and  Stanley  and  Channing  and 
Bushnell  and  Spurgeon  and  Brooks  and  Mat- 
thew Simpson.  What  a  list  of  immortals  one 
can  cite!  These  are  the  mountains,  and  there 
are  thousands  of  noble  hills  besides.  And 
what  a  gracious  light  they  caught  and  threw! 
And  when  the  altar  fires  burned  low,  it  was  be- 
cause the  prophets  were  dead.  Singers,  we 
are  told,  are  to  be  pitied  because  posterity 
cannot  hear  them.  Their  art  is  fragile  and 
ephemeral.  Not  so  the  preacher !  He  is  in  alli- 
ance with  the  heights.  The  truth  he  utters 
links   him   with   the   eternal.     It    was   Henry 


THE  RICHES  OF  GRACE  13 

Ward  Beecher,  a  preacher,  who  dealt  slavery 
some  of  those  deathblows  from  which  it  never 
rallied.  It  was  Thomas  Chalmers,  a  preacher, 
who  made  his  weekly  discourses  one  of  the 
controlling  forces  of  Scotland.  It  was  Jona- 
than Edwards,  a  preacher,  who  made  his  pul- 
pit a  seat  of  the  mighty.  It  was  John  Wesley, 
a  preacher,  who  started  a  new  era  of  political 
economy — a  man  by  the  way  who,  according 
to  Carlyle,  has  wielded  more  influence  in  the 
world  than  any  of  his  three  great  contempo- 
raries, William  Pitt,  the  Duke  of  Wellington, 
or  Napoleon  Bonaparte.  Some  religions  rely 
upon  the  sword;  some  upon  the  state;  some 
upon  ancestor  worship ;  some  upon  symbolism ; 
but  the  Christian  religion,  from  the  beginning, 
has  relied  upon  tongues  inflamed  by  a  burning 
coal  from  off  God's  altar.  In  the  antediluvian 
age  Moses  delivered  his  message.  In  the  apos- 
tolic age  Paul  defended  his.  Never  at  any 
time  has  prophecy  ceased.  It  is  a  splendid 
thing  to  make  this  world  livable,  but  it  is  a 
better  thing  to  make  the  other  world  real,  and 
this  is  the  function  of  the  prophet.  Our  old 
professor  at  Princeton  used  to  say  to  us, 
"  Young  men,  never  belittle  your  calling." 
Other  parts  of  worship  have  changed.  The 
sacrifice  has  changed ;  the  ritual  has  changed ; 
the  litanies,  too,  and  the  liturgies;  but  the  of- 


14      THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

fice  of  the  pulpit,  all  through  the  circle  of  the 
centuries,  has  remained  virtually  the  same. 
The  world  outgrows  its  priests,  but  not  its 
prophets.  "  It  has  pleased  God  by  the  foolish- 
ness of  preaching  to  save  them  which  believe." 
Of  course,  preaching  is  a  function  of  many 
forms.  It  is  well  to  remember  that  in  the  New 
Testament  there  are  six  words  translated 
preacher — each  contributing  its  little  touch  of 
colouring  by  way  of  definition.  There  is,  first, 
the  word  herald.  Two  of  the  words,  in  fact, 
mean  just  a  herald.  The  third  means  a  herald 
of  good  news — the  word  used  in  the  passage 
before  us.  The  fourth  signifies  a  talker. 
"  Jesus  talked  to  the  multitudes."  The  fifth,  a 
reasoner,  and  the  sixth,  a  prophet.  These  are 
the  different  shades  which  go  to  portray  this 
imperial  word.  And  it  will  be  noted  how  they 
all  concern  themselves  with  the  art  of  public 
speech.  The  preacher  is  not  a  priest.  He  is 
not  a  prelate.  He  is  not  a  sacramentalist. 
He  is  not  simply  the  "  guardian  of  a  fixed  and 
ancient  deposit."  He  is  a  voice.  He  is  a  living 
voice.  The  problem  of  the  preacher  is  how 
to  translate  the  things  of  eternity  into  the 
vocabulary  of  time.  God  endowed  man  with 
the  gift  of  utterance  that  he  might  reveal  him- 
self. Language  is  his  weapon.  The  skilful 
handling  of  words  is  his  art.    To  fumble  here 


THE  RICHES  OF  GRACE  15 

is  an  unpardonable  and  indefensible  blunder. 
That  great  German  strategist,  Von  Moltke,  it 
was  said,  could  be  silent  in  seven  languages. 
The  man  who  proclaims  the  Word  of  Life 
ought  to  try  to  be  persuasive  in  at  least  one. 

Now,  it  may  be  worth  while  just  here  to 
pause  a  moment  and  ask  the  Apostle  to  answer 
a  few  questions  for  us :  Who  the  preacher  is  ? 
What  are  his  marks?  Whence  his  diploma? 
Wherefore  his  commission?  "Unto  me  who 
am  less  than  the  least  of  all  saints  was  this 
grace  given,  to  preach  unto  the  Gentiles  the 
unsearchable  riches  of  Christ."  These  are 
striking  words.  They  are  strategic.  They  are 
comprehensive.  They  are  vital.  They  ac- 
quaint us  with  the  credentials  of  the  truly 
anointed.  He  is  a  man  clad  in  the  garb  of 
humility.  He  is  a  man  characterised  by  the 
gift  of  grace.  He  is  a  man  with  a  message. 
May  we  pause  and  interrogate  just  what  these 
things  imply? 

I.  A  man,  first  of  all,  clad  in  the  garb  of 
Humility.  Unsearchable  riches  of  grace! 
Untold  poverty  of  spirit!  What  a  startling 
conjunction!  We  marvel  how  the  limited  con- 
tent of  the  receptacle  can  handle  the  wealth 
of  the  infinite  and  gracious  supply.  There  is 
nothing  more  winsome  about  Paul  than  his 
great  human  heart.    If  ever  there  lived  a  man 


16     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

who  had  the  right  to  boast  a  bit,  it  was  he.  But 
mark  his  modesty.  "  Unto  me  who  am  less 
than  the  least."  Me,  a  vessel  of  grace.  The 
wonder  of  it  appalled  him.  He  felt  himself  a 
pigmy  before  the  mountainous  conception. 
"  Unto  me  who  am  less  than  the  least."  "  Less 
than  the  least."  A  comparative  superlative! 
You  say  that  is  strange.  Is  it  possible?  Is  it 
good  English?  No,  it  is  not:  it  is  not  good 
English,  and  it  is  impossible.  There  cannot  be 
anything  less  than  the  least.  It  is  the  language 
of  the  heart,  not  the  head.  This  is  how  he 
felt.  He  would  like  a  place — if  only  such  a 
place  could  be — below  the  lowest.  One  hardly 
needs  to  add  that  this  is  not  the  temper  of  the 
age.  It  is  not  God's  bounty  to-day  that 
awakens  our  awe.  People  say,  "  Why  has  this 
trouble  come  upon  me?"  They  do  not  say, 
"Why  has  this  blessing  been  conferred?" 
We  do  not  marvel  at  the  mercies  any  more. 
We  do  not  stand  in  trembling  bewilderment 
before  them.  We  rather  anticipate  them.  We 
almost  murmur  if  we  do  not  receive  them. 
To-day  it  is  our  troubles  that  excite  us  with  the 
wine  of  wonder.  This  age  of  ours  is  worried 
much  over  its  sorrow,  but  little  over  its  sin. 
Why  has  this  affliction  come?  Why  this  ca- 
lamity? Paul  had  more  than  his  share  of  ill- 
fortune,  but  it  never  disturbed  him.     He  never 


THE  RICHES  OF  GRACE  17 

said,  "  Why?  "  to  his  trials.  It  was  the  mani- 
fold goodness  of  God  that  evoked  his  sur- 
prise. No  man  was  ever  more  humble  than 
the  great  Apostle,  and  yet  again  one  is  almost 
tempted  to  doubt  if  ever  man  was  more  boast- 
ful. His  letters  are  full  of  the  personal  pro- 
noun. In  this  one  chapter  alone  he  uses  "  I  " 
and  "  me  "  twelve  times.  But  it  was  a  splen- 
did magnanimous  boastfulness.  His  one  aim 
was  to  use  himself  and  his  experience  and  his 
art  and  his  culture  and  his  training  as  a  pedes- 
tal for  the  massive  towering  figure  of  the 
mighty  Christ.  He  was  unquestionably  the 
greatest  of  the  saints,  although  he  places  him- 
self below  the  least,  but  it  was  because  he  was 
so  beautifully  Christ-like. 

And  you  are  not  surprised.  Has  it  not  al- 
ways been  thus?  Have  not  all  the  immortal 
exponents  of  truth  been  men  of  self-abase- 
ment? In  his  eighty-fourth  year,  John  Wesley 
said,  "  I  am  still  at  school."  And  at  almost 
the  same  age  Goethe  remarked,  "  I  carry  my 
satchel  yet."  Instance  Luther.  In  studying 
Luther  the  first  thing  that  arrests  us  is  the 
bashfulness  with  which  he  shrank  from  his 
work.  He  said  one  day  to  the  Superior,  who 
was  urging  him  to  preach,  "  No,  no;  it  is  not 
a  little  thing  to  speak  before  men  in  the  place 
of  God."    What  was  this  but  the  natural  recoil 


18      THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

of  a  great  soul  from  a  responsible  task? 
Jowett  tells  a  story  of  Joseph  Parker.  "  Why- 
did  Jesus  choose  Judas  ?  "  Dr.  Parker  was  once 
asked.  "  I  do  not  know,"  replied  the  Doctor, 
"  but  I  have  a  harder  question :  why  did  He 
choose  me?"  This  it  was  that  puzzled  Paul, 
Why  did  He  choose  me?  "  Me,"  he  exclaims, 
"  who  am  less  than  the  least."  Why  me?  The 
humility  of  the  Apostle  is  most  engaging.  It 
was  a  virtue  he  was  ever  enforcing.  And, 
surely,  no  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  more  inviting. 
We  love  it  in  our  children.  We  love  it  in  our 
friends.  We  admire  it  in  the  flowers — the 
violet,  the  primrose,  the  lily-of-the-valley,  the 
daisy, — "  wee  modest  crimson-tippit  flower." 
It  is  a  beautiful  thing  everywhere.  In  the 
teachings  of  Jesus  it  is  the  passport  to  power. 
"  Whoso  humbleth  himself  shall  be  exalted." 
He  who  would  pray  acceptably  cannot  use  the 
language  of  merit.  If  merit  were  ours,  we 
should  not  need  to  pray.  Merit  says,  "  Pay  me 
that  thou  owest."  It  is  a  plaintiff  claiming  his 
right.  Prayer  says,  "  I  am  less  than  the  least." 
It  is  a  supplicant  pleading  acquittal.  And,  of 
course,  'tis  needless  to  explain  that  the  word 
"  humility "  has  changed  its  meaning.  In 
olden  times  it  was  a  sinister  word — a  word  of 
slaves.  Hardly  could  you  offer  a  man  a  greater 
insult  than  to  call  him  humble.     On  the  up- 


THE  RICHES  OF  GRACE  19 

turned  statue  of  Rameses,  unearthed  the  other 
day  amid  the  ruins  of  Memphis,  is  found  this 
inscription:  "I  am  King  of  Kings.  If  any 
one  wants  to  know  how  great  I  am  let  him  try 
to  surpass  one  of  my  works."  That  was  the 
old  appraisement.  The  world  accepted  you  at 
your  own  valuation.  Therefore,  put  the  price 
as  high  as  possible.  Once  humility  was  a 
stigma.  To-day  it  is  a  compliment.  Christ  took 
the  hateful  word  and  made  it  honourable.  It 
is  the  Christian's  loveliest  virtue  and  his  crown- 
ing grace.  The  old  order  of  chivalry  has 
passed  away.  'Tis  the  meek  who  are  mighty 
now.  "  Blessed  are  the  meek,"  said  the  Mas- 
ter. To  be  something  in  God's  eyes  we  must 
be  nothing  in  our  own. 

There  were  three  words  constantly  on  the 
lips  of  Jesus — the  last,  the  least,  and  the  lost. 
And  His  Lordship  consists  in  the  fact  that 
He  makes  the  lost  to  be  found,  the  least  to 
be  greatest,  the  last  to  be  first.  Can  a  life  be- 
come humble  apart  from  God?  Can  a  straw- 
berry ripen  without  the  sun?  The  strawberry 
will  grow  and  get  juice  and  colour;  but  no 
berry  ever  had  its  sour  sap  changed  into  sweet- 
ness without  the  shining  of  the  great  orb  of 
day.  It  takes  the  whole  solar  system  to  grow 
a  berry.  And  it  takes  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  the  third  person  of  the  mystical  Trinity, 


20     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

to  grow  a  simple  grace  like  humility.  Ruskin 
notes  that  if  you  were  to  cut  a  square  inch  out 
of  Turner's  skies  you  would  find  the  infinite 
in  it.  Just  so  the  lowliest  human  grace  is 
rooted  in  the  infinite.  Where  is  boasting  then  ? 
It  is  excluded.  Grace  shows  boasting  to  the 
door  and  bows  it  out. 

II.  He  is  a  man  characterised  by  the  Gift  of 
Grace.  "  God  resisteth  the  proud  but  giveth 
grace  unto  the  humble."  "  Unto  me  was  this 
grace  given."  "  Was  " ;  past  tense.  The  great 
Apostle  to  the  Gentiles  preached  not  because  he 
was  gifted  oratorically.  Not  because  he  felt  a 
joy  in  the  holy  exercise,  but  because  he  had 
been  anointed.  "  To  me  was  this  grace  given." 
The  preacher  may  have  the  strength  of  a  Her- 
cules, the  heart  of  a  Howard,  the  tongue  of  a 
Cicero,  the  courage  of  a  Luther,  the  passion  of 
a  St.  Francis.  He  may  have  all  these  endow- 
ments and  fail.  Not  until  he  is  given  an  unc- 
tion from  above  is  he  chiefly  equipped  for  his 
work.  His  success  depends  not  on  the  depth  of 
his  thought,  nor  the  finish  and  sparkle  of  his 
style,  but  upon  the  baptism  of  his  Lord.  He 
must  be  sure  that  God  has  spoken  to  him  ere 
he  can  venture  to  speak  to  others.  Does  he 
come  from  some  university?  Then  he  can  lift 
us  to  learning.  Does  he  come  from  some 
school  of  music?    Then  he  can  lift  us  to  art. 


THE  RICHES  OF  GRACE  21 

Does  he  come  from  some  parliament?  Then 
he  can  lift  us  to  politics.  But  if  he  would 
lift  us  to  God,  he  must  come  from  the 
secret  of  the  Holy  presence.  He  must  have 
the  fragrance  of  the  King's  garden.  H  he 
would  lead  us  to  Zion,  he  must  know  the  way 
thither.  He  should  wear  the  halo  of  the  in- 
finite. And  this  is  grace.  What  a  simple  word 
it  is!  There  is  no  word  more  elementary. 
We  stumble  over  it  on  almost  every  page  of 
Scripture.  Truly,  it  is  a  familiar  word.  And 
yet  it  is  not  an  understood  word.  Indeed  the 
word  is  vague.  It  is  so  vague  that  we  have 
well-nigh  banished  it  from  our  vocabulary. 
"  Grace  does  not  run  in  the  blood,"  we  say. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  one  thing  is  sure — it  does  not 
run  much  in  our  modern  vernacular — the  rea- 
son being  that  we  have  about  banished  its  co- 
relative,  sin.  We  hear  little  of  sin  these  days. 
The  word  is  in  danger  of  becoming  obsolete. 
We  have  almost  lost  our  sin-consciousness. 
We  are  not  shocked  by  it  any  more.  We  have 
about  forgotten  how  to  blush.  Grace  is  sin's 
catholicon.  If  we  reject  the  one,  we  cannot 
long  retain  the  other.  "  Where  sin  aboundeth 
grace  doth  much  more  abound." 

Now,  what  is  grace?  Let  us  be  quite  sure 
that  we  are  travelling  on  cognisant  and  familiar 
paths.    It  is  not  an  aesthetic  outfit.    Graceful- 


22      THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

ness  is,  but  not  grace.  It  is  not  a  mere  soft 
sentimental  emotion.  It  is  not  simply  good 
will.  It  is  a  great  tidal  flow.  It  is  the  divine 
heart  at  work  in  the  world.  God's  love  as  an 
energy  going  out  to  the  sinner — that  is  grace. 
You  know  but  little  of  village  pumps  here 
in  New  York.  Perhaps  you  have  never  felt 
their  primitive  but  interesting  romance.  Do 
you  remember  those  old  wooden  handles  in  the 
country?  You  had  to  work  hard  to  get  any 
water,  and  sometimes  you  had  first  to  pour 
water  in  to  get  any  out.  How  different  from 
a  spring!  A  pump  labours,  but  a  spring  bub- 
bles. Grace  is  not  love  that  is  pumped  out.  It 
is  love  that  bursts  out.  It  is  spontaneous,  gush- 
ing, artesian.  It  is  the  outrush  of  the  love  of 
God.  Love  with  us  is  a  passion.  Love  with 
God  is  an  attribute.  It  is  the  great  cardinal 
attribute  of  the  Divine  Essence. 

I  walked,  the  other  day,  along  the  fringe  of 
the  Pacific  and  watched  the  swell  and  leap  of 
the  incoming  tide.  The  air  was  heavy  with  the 
breath  of  the  brine.  I  could  feel  the  tonic  of 
the  invigorating  breeze.  I  could  hear  the  revel- 
ling roar  of  the  onrushing  wave.  It  was  glori- 
ous. The  infinite  was  tumbling  shoreward  in 
a  flood  of  fulness.  And  I  was  thankful  for 
this  commentary  of  the  mighty  deep  because 
it  revealed  to  me  something  of  the  pulse  of  the 


THE  RICHES  OF  GRACE  23 

Eternal.  Grace  is  the  tide  of  God's  love  roll- 
ing toward  the  race  and  cleansing  the  shores 
of  human  defilement.  It  was  said  of  Mozart 
that  he  brought  angels  down,  and  of  Beethoven 
that  he  lifted  mortals  up.  Jesus  does  both. 
He  brings  God  down  and  He  lifts  man  up. 
Grace  is  love  reaching  down;  faith  is  love 
reaching  up.  And  when  the  two  meet  and 
clasp,  then  you  have  the  Gospel  in  a  pic- 
ture. 

"  Grace   taught   my   wandering   feet 
To  tread  the  heavenly  road ; 
And  new  supplies  each  hour  I   meet 
While  pressing  on  to  God." 

III.  He  is  entrusted  with  a  message.  And 
he  must  not  change  the  message — not  a  diph- 
thong of  it.  Can  the  telegraph  boy  change  the 
telegram?  That  is  not  his  province.  The 
Apostle  to  the  Gentiles  is  our  model.  Never 
for  one  moment  was  he  in  doubt  as  to  what  he 
ought  to  proclaim.  It  was  not  always  pleasant 
or  welcome.  Sometimes  it  was  most  unpleas- 
ant and  unwelcome.  The  faith,  he  says,  was 
once  delivered  to  the  saints.  It  was  not  in- 
vented by  them.  It  was  handed  down  to  them. 
It  was  delivered.  Nay,  stronger  than  that.  It 
was  "  once  for  all  "  delivered — delivered,  he 
means,  in  its  saving  and  sanctifying  complete- 


24     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

ness.  The  minister  is  a  voice.  The  message 
does  not  belong  to  him.  He  belongs  to  the 
message.  And  it  comes  from  on  high.  Of 
what  avail  is  a  commission  from  man  ?  Ours  is 
from  the  King.  Preaching  is  not  man  using 
the  truth.  It  is  truth  using  the  man.  He  does 
not  possess  it.  He  is  possessed  by  it.  He  bears 
the  burden  of  a  divine  urgency.  Ever  should 
we  be  on  guard  lest  we  forget  that  the  true 
minister  is  a  prophet.  Not  a  soothsayer; 
not  a  foreteller; — a  forthteller.  He  is  not 
moving  away  over  there  in  the  vague  thin 
realm  of  the  remote.  He  is  living  right  here 
in  the  thick  of  the  present.  He  deals  with  the 
twentieth  century,  not  the  twenty-first.  He  is 
a  man  of  his  age.  He  is  a  living  voice.  He 
speaks  for  God.  He  is  the  interpreter  of  God. 
His  office  is  possible  only  on  the  basis  of  a 
revelation.  He  is  the  exponent  of  a  commis- 
sion. 

And  what  is  the  commission?  Note  care- 
fully again  the  wording,  please.  "  That  I 
should  preach  among  the  Gentiles  the  un- 
searchable riches  of  Christ."  Now,  that  is  an 
unsearchable  sentence.  I  cannot  explore  it. 
It  is  beyond  me.  The  descriptive  word  in  it  is 
a  rare  word.  It  means  literally — "  Not  to  be 
tracked  by  footprints."  It  is  found  only  in 
one  other  place  in  the   New  Testament — in 


THE  RICHES  OF  GRACE  25 

Romans.  "  How  unsearchable  are  His  judg- 
ments and  His  ways  past  finding  out."  "  Past 
finding  out !  "  The  figure  is  oceanic.  "  His 
way  is  in  the  sea  and  His  path  in  the  great 
waters  and  His  footsteps  are  not  known."  I 
was  down  at  the  ocean  a  few  months  ago,  and 
one  morning  I  was  telling  my  little  ones  a 
story.  I  took  them  in  my  arms  and  we  were 
looking  out  over  the  water.  I  was  recon- 
structing the  old  story  we  used  to  hear  when 
we  were  children,  incorporating  ever  and  anon 
some  additional  misfortunes.  Two  little  boys 
jumped  into  a  boat.  They  lifted  the  sails  and 
started  off.  Away  it  went  bounding  over  the 
waves.  They  sailed  for  hours,  and  when  they 
decided  to  come  home  they  did  not  know  how 
to  turn  it,  and  so  they  just  had  to  sail  on  and 
on — all  night,  through  the  dusk  and  the  dark 
and  the  swish  into  the  dawn ;  all  next  day ;  two 
days,  three,  four;  a  week,  two  weeks,  three, 
four,  till  at  last  they  landed — this  time  in 
China.  They  had  some  thrilling  adventures 
with  the  Chinamen  when  they  went  ashore. 
But,  after  all,  what  impressed  them  most  was 
the  bigness  of  the  mighty  ocean.  My  little 
girl  exclaimed,  "  It  isn't  that  big,  is  it,  papa?  " 
A  great  preacher  tells  us  that  the  first  time  he 
crossed  to  Liverpool  he  was  humming  Faber's 
hymn  all  the  way  over: 


26     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

"  There's  a  wideness  in  God's  mercy 
Like  the  wideness  of  the  sea." 

The  vastness  of  the  mighty  deep  gripped  him, 
overwhelmed  him.  Well,  that  is  the  figure. 
Unknowable,  unmeasurable,  unfathomable,  in- 
definable, unsearchable.  I  linger  on  the  word 
and  revel  in  its  richness.  You  cannot  search 
what  is  unsearchable.  The  stronger  the  tele- 
scope, the  greater  the  galaxy  of  luminous  won- 
ders. And  the  stronger  the  faith,  the  more 
inscrutable  the  wealth  of  His  boundless  grace. 
Rich!  Aye,  infinitely  rich.  Rich  because  it 
enriches.  It  takes  the  prisoner  and  frees  him. 
It  takes  the  leper  and  cleanses  him  and  clothes 
him  and  crowns  him.  Salvation  is  the  joyful 
word.  It  is  the  theme  of  every  book  in  the 
Bible.  It  is  the  making  of  a  man  sound  and 
whole  and  vigorous  and  virtuous.  And  never 
must  we  allow  ourselves  to  forget  that  the 
riches  of  His  grace  means  the  riches  of  His 
love.  It  was  the  first  truth  we  memorised  at 
mother's  knee.  And,  mirabile  dictti,  it  is  the 
truth  men  are  doubting  to-day.  To-day  it  has 
become  the  very  storm  citadel  of  our  faith.  A 
hostile  criticism  is  attacking  it.  God  love  us? 
How  can  He  ?  they  say.  Why  should  He  ?  He 
is  so  mighty  and  we  are  such  mites.  Just  frail, 
weak,  foolish  bundles  of  dust!  How  can  He 
bother  about  us  ?    How  can  He  hold  us  in  His 


THE  RICHES  OF  GRACE  27 

heart?  We  are  always  wondering  how  it  can 
be.  And  yet  it  is  the  very  rock-bottom  funda- 
mental of  our  immortal  message. 


"Yes,  for  me,  for  me  He  careth 
With   a   brother's   tender   care." 


This,  then,  is  the  wealthy  content  of  the 
Apostle's  gracious  message.  Surely,  we  need 
to  put  on  the  mantle  of  humility  and  to  pray 
most  earnestly  for  the  heavenly  gift  of  grace. 
For,  to  tell  such  tidings  must  be  an  unspeak- 
able and  inspiring  privilege.  Catholics  claim 
that  it  is  a  very  solemn  thing  when  the  priest 
consecrates  wafer  and  wine.  In  such  sacramen- 
talism,  of  course,  we  do  not  share.  But  we  do 
share  in  the  faith  that  consecrates  heart  and 
voice  and  lip  and  tongue  and  puts  these  organs 
in  tune  with  the  divine,  so  that  the  message 
may  be  transmitted  in  its  crystal  completeness ; 
and  this,  surely,  is  full  as  solemn  and  seri- 
ous a  transaction.  If  we  preach  the  riches  of 
culture  we  are  competing  with  the  college,  and 
the  college  has  the  advantage.  If  we  preach 
the  riches  of  literature  we  are  coping  with  the 
magazines,  and  the  magazines  can  beat  us.  But 
if  we  preach  the  riches  of  Jesus,  we  have  no 
rivalry.  It  is  a  great,  holy,  blessed,  wonder- 
ful monopoly.     Salvation  for  the  last  and  the 


28     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

least  and  the  lost.  The  pulpit  is  not  a  class- 
room, not  a  lecture  bureau,  nor  a  forum  for 
debate.  No  one  looks  pulpit-ward  these  days 
for  instruction  in  biology  or  botany  or  dramatic 
art.  There  are  experts  for  these  things.  The 
minister  is  the  exponent  of  the  spiritual  life. 
To  be  faithful  here  is  to  stand  in  the  apostolic 
order.  It  is  not  a  little  local  work;  it  is  a  world 
work.  The  preacher  ought  to  be  a  man  with 
a  world  vision.  He  should  think  in  world- 
terms.  His  message  covers  the  whole  stretch 
and  area  of  human  life. 

They  are  telling  us,  forsooth,  to-day  that 
the  old  story  is  out-of-date,  that  it  has  lost  its 
power.  A  great  professor  recently  stated  that 
he  had  created  life  by  chemical  action,  and 
many  columns  of  wisdom  were  written  to  show 
how  the  old  faith  was  crumbling  at  our  feet. 
Professor  Drew  of  the  University  of  Berlin  de- 
livered a  lecture  this  last  winter  in  which  he 
claimed  that  Jesus  never  lived — he  was  myth- 
ical. It  will  be  remembered  that  Archbishop 
Whately  once  wrote  a  treatise  called  "  His- 
toric Doubts  Concerning  Napoleon,"  in  which 
he  proved  that  if  we  adopt  the  method  of  the 
German  neologists.  Napoleon  never  lived.  A 
liberal  minister  said  the  other  day  in  our  hear- 
ing, "  I  spell  my  God  with  two  o's,  and  my 
devil  without  a  d — good  and  evil."    Let  us  be 


THE  RICHES  OF  GRACE  29 

perfectly  frank.  We  spell  our  God  Jesus.  He 
is  the  Eternal  Logos.  He  is  not  simply  a  rare 
spiritual  genius  who  "  lures  to  brighter  worlds 
and  leads  the  way."  He  is  the  way.  He  is  our 
Redeemer,  Saviour,  Master,  Lord.  We  do  not 
admire  Him;  we  adore  Him.  I  may  be  old- 
fashioned,  but  I  confess  I  do  not  want  my  faith 
"  whittled  down  to  a  few  moral  platitudes 
which  no  one  ever  dreamed  of  denying."  I  do 
not  want  my  Saviour  put  in  a  row  with  the 
rest,  with  Socrates  and  Seneca  and  Buddha  and 
Aurelius.  For  there  is  no  row  and  there  is 
no  rest.  He  is  apart,  alone,  far  away.  He  is 
not  to  be  lauded :  He  is  to  be  loved.  He  is  not 
to  be  encored:  He  is  to  be  worshipped.  He 
is  not  to  be  respected:  He  is  to  be  revered. 
Who  is  this  King  of  Glory?  Christ  of  Cal- 
vary— He  is  the  King  of  Glory.  The  message 
is  old.  Verily,  indeed,  it  is.  But,  then,  so  is 
gravity,  so  is  light,  so  is  life.  All  truth  is  old. 
There  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun  but  good 
and  evil,  and  they  are  as  old  as  the  race.  Hu- 
manity is  old :  personality  is  new.  Time  is  old : 
the  morning  is  new.  The  rain  is  old :  the  rain- 
bow is  new.  The  sun  is  old:  the  sunbeam  is 
new.  No  one  thinks  of  light  as  an  obsolete 
institution.  The  Atonement  is  old :  the  Cruci- 
fixion is  new.  All  abiding  things  are  old.  The 
hills  are  old,  the  sea  is  old,  the  stars  are  old. 


30      THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

And  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ, 
for  one  reason,  because  it  is  old.  It  has  stood 
the  test  of  time  and  it  has  stood  it  well.  Time 
writes  no  wrinkles  on  its  unaging  brow.  When 
George  Frederick  Watts  was  offered  a  baro- 
netcy, he  wrote  to  a  friend,  "  Tell  Mrs.  Maud 
that  the  only  title  I  will  take  is  the  one  she  gave 
me,  '  the  painter  of  eternal  things.' "  The 
preacher  is  the  painter  of  eternal  things,  un- 
searchable things,  indescribable  things.  "  Unto 
me  who  am  less  than  the  least  of  all  saints  was 
this  grace  given,  to  preach  unto  the  Gentiles 
the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ." 


THE  RICHES  OF  THE 
MESSENGER 


"  I  am  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  beginning  and  the  end, 
the  first  and  the  last." — Revelation  22 :  13. 


II 

THE  RICHES  OF  THE  MESSENGER 

THESE  are  the  words  of  our  ascended 
Lord  in  Paradise.  He  calls  Himself  the 
Alpha  and  Omega  of  all  things.  Alpha 
and  Omega  are  the  first  and  last  letters  of  the 
Greek  alphabet;  Alpha  and  alphabet  being  re- 
lated roots.  What  a  strange  and  puzzling  thing 
is  the  alphabet  of  any  language!  How  unin- 
telligible and  grotesque  to  us  seem  the  twisted 
shapes  of  some  unknown  Oriental  tongue! 
How  we  stand  bewildered  and  blank  before  the 
hieroglyphics  of  the  Chinese !  And  our  letters 
are  full  as  strange  and  bedarkening  to  him  as 
his  dots  and  dashes  are  to  us.  Only  the  expert 
linguist  can  decipher  sense  in  the  development 
of  this  vague  world  of  wonder.  He  takes  us 
back  into  the  twilight  of  the  race,  and  rum- 
mages among  the  sticks  and  stones  and  strings 
and  lines  and  outlines,  and  sounds  and  echoes 
and  gestures,  and  dreams  and  superstitions, 
and  rustling  leaves  and  creaking  doors,  and 
shows  us  how,  by  a  curious  evolution,  these 
crooks  and  curves  have  come  to  have  a  mean- 

33 


34      THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

ing.  Mark  that  old  Moabite  stone.  Two  men 
are  standing  by  it.  To  the  one  it  is  nothing 
but  blots  and  scrawls  and  senseless  scribble ;  to 
the  other,  who  is  a  Phoenician,  it  is  a  precious 
treasure,  for  these  are  the  marks  of  his  mother- 
tongue. 

The  alphabet  is  the  symbol  of  the  world's 
infancy.  It  is  the  simple  intuitive  gesture  of 
the  tribal  childhood.  It  is  the  race  struggling 
to  express  itself  in  understandable  ways. 
What  are  letters?  A  vowel,  for  instance?  A 
vowel  is  simply  a  vocalisation  of  the  breath. 
A  consonant?  A  consonant  is  closer,  the  re- 
sult of  an  audible  friction.  And  yet  unto  what 
a  marvellous  ultimate  have  these  elemental 
things  attained !  What  records,  what  volumes, 
what  tales,  what  songs,  what  ballads,  what 
lyrics,  what  poems,  what  philosophies!  There 
are  twenty-six  symbols  in  our  Anglo-Saxon 
tongue.  Give  them  the  right  arrangement,  as 
Caird  in  his  great  theistic  argument  puts  it, 
and  you  have  "  the  masculine  reality  of  Chau- 
cer"; another  arrangement  and  the  Faerie 
Queen  trips  lightly  before  you;  another  dis- 
position, and  lo!  there  is  the  noble,  stately 
music  of  Milton.  Group  the  vowels  in  a  dif- 
ferent order  and  you  have  the  ocean  roll  of 
Byron.  One  more  marshalling  and  Shelley 
spreads  his  wings ;  still  another  assortment  and 


RICHES  OF  THE  MESSENGER      35 

we  catch  the  soft,  liquid,  meadow-lark  note  of 
Keats.  Truly,  it  is  a  strange  and  fascinating  and 
endless  study.  When  Professor  Huxley  pon- 
dered the  eight  simple  notes  of  the  octave  he 
prophesied  the  imminent  sterility  of  music, 
lamenting  the  not-far-distant  day  when  there 
would  be  no  more  new  tunes.  But  the  prophecy 
was  short-sighted.  The  outflow  of  melody  is 
rich  and  soothing  and  sweet  as  ever.  The 
combinations  are  infinite.  And  the  possibilities 
of  literature  are  even  more  exhaustless.  For 
it  has  a  greater  capital  to  begin  with.  There 
are  no  boundaries  to  the  empire  of  letters.  It 
is  past  and  far  away  beyond  defining. 

Our  blessed  Lord  in  glory  uses  this  meta- 
phor to  describe  His  own  eternal  preeminence. 
"  I  am  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  beginning  and 
the  end,  the  first  and  the  last."  He  is  Alpha 
and  Omega  and  all  the  letters  between.  He  is 
lead  and  hydrogen  and  all  the  elements  be- 
tween. He  is  red  and  violet,  the  beginning  and 
end  of  the  spectrum,  and  all  the  colours  be- 
tween. He  is  the  image  of  the  invisible  God, 
the  first  born  of  all  creation.  He  is  before  all 
things.  "  For  by  Him  were  all  things  created 
that  are  in  Heaven  and  that  are  on  earth,  visible 
and  invisible,  whether  they  be  thrones  or  prin- 
cipalities or  dominions  or  powers."  He  is  the 
beginning,  the  first  born  from  the  dead,  and  for 


36     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

Him  and  by  Him  and  through  Him  all  things 
consist.  Let  us  follow  this  thought  out  into 
some  of  religion's  most  important  depart- 
ments. 

I.  It  is  true  first  of  all  of  Revelation.  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  Revealer.  He  is  the  Alpha  and 
Omega  of  the  revealed  word.  No  one  under- 
stands Revelation  till  he  has  approached  it 
through  the  Christ.  Without  Christ  the  Bible 
is  an  enigma,  the  darkest  kind  of  an  enigma. 
The  book  does  not  explain  the  man,  the  man 
explains  the  book.  He  is  the  key  to  it.  "  And 
beginning  from  Moses  and  from  all  the  proph- 
ets, He  interpreted  to  them  in  all  the  scrip- 
tures the  things  concerning  Himself."  Every 
manuscript  in  the  sacred  canon,  with  but  one 
or  two  exceptions,  contains  some  reference  to 
the  Messiah.  His  portrait  is  on  well-nigh 
every  page.  Every  line  converges  on  Him. 
Not  only  have  we  His  biography  by  the  four 
Evangelists.  We  also  have  a  prophetic  life  in 
the  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament  and  again 
a  post-resurrection  life  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles. "  Ye  search  the  scriptures  because  ye 
think  that  in  them  ye  have  eternal  life,  and 
these  are  they  which  bear  witness  of  Me." 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  Alpha  of  the  Bible.  That 
is  to  say,  He  is  the  first  letter  of  the  alphabet 
of  Christianity.     "  In  the  beginning  was  the 


RICHES  OF  THE  MESSENGER      37 

Word."  And  He  is  the  Omega;  He  is  the  last 
letter.    "  Even  so  come  Lord  Jesus." 

Revelation  begins  with  Him  and  ends  with 
Him.  He  is  in  fact  Himself  the  revealed 
Word.  "  The  Word  was  with  God  and  the 
Word  was  God."  The  great  imperative  chal- 
lenge of  the  New  Testament  is  not  that  we  be- 
lieve in  the  facts  it  presents,  but  that  we  believe 
in  the  person  it  portrays.  His  personality 
makes  His  history.  The  book  did  not  call  Him 
into  being ;  He  called  the  book  into  being.  He 
gives  unity  and  coherence  to  all  the  mixed  and, 
much  of  it,  crude  material.  He  is  what  the 
heart  of  the  people  felt  after  and  finally  found. 
He  did  what  He  did  because  He  was  what  He 
was.  He  is  the  first  because  He  is  the  last, 
and  He  is  the  last  because  He  is  the  first.  He 
is  the  Logos  that  was  in  the  beginning,  and 
He  is  the  Lamb  that  looms  large  at  the  close. 
Just  as  the  alphabet  is  at  the  fountain  of  all  our 
literature,  so  He  is  at  the  root  of  well-nigh 
every  utterance  in  the  sacred  writings. 

H.  He  is  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  Right- 
eousness. There  are  scholars  to-day  who  are 
endeavouring  to  found  a  system  of  morals  in- 
dependent of  the  Christian  religion.  They  are 
trying  to  discover  a  wholesome  livable  code 
of  conduct  apart  from  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Italian  minister  of  education,  Credaro, 


1  O  ij  t)  i  o 


38      THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

made  a  speech  in  Venice  last  summer.  These 
are  a  few  of  his  words :  "  Modern  democracy 
must  find  some  moralising  substitute  for  re- 
ligion, since  this  is  losing  its  hold  on  the  peo- 
ple. To  what  shall  we  look  ?  There  is  only  one 
place  to  look,  and  that  is  to  art  and  the  artistic 
sentiment.  Here  lies  the  source  of  order,  peace, 
unity,  vision,  purity,  love."  This  is  a  some- 
what popular  appeal  to-day.  These  men  want 
the  Ten  Commandments — the  most  of  them  at 
least — but  they  want  them  anonymously.  They 
would  incorporate  a  good  deal  of  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  into  their  ethical  scheme,  but 
they  would  dismiss  the  author.  Because  they 
say  a  holy  life  does  not  any  longer  need  the 
stimulus  of  a  personal  religious  faith.  It  was 
useful  once,  perhaps,  in  the  childhood  of  the 
race,  but  we  have  outgrown  it.  It  is  a  hin- 
drance rather  than  a  help  to-day.  It  is  tangled 
up  in  a  mythology  which  has  become  incredible. 
And  it  must  be  confessed  that  they  fortify 
their  ground  with  some  remarkable  illustra- 
tions. Look,  they  appeal  to  us,  at  the  men  of 
this  type  we  can  assemble.  Some  of  them  are 
positivists,  some  are  secularists,  some  are  athe- 
ists, all  are  agnostics  as  far  as  a  spiritual  faith 
is  concerned;  but  their  lives  are  clean  and 
wholesome  and  blameless  and  sincere.  They 
measure  up  well  to  any  of  the  finest  of  your 


RICHES  OF  THE  MESSENGER     39 

Christian  communion.  There  are  John  Morley 
and  Edmund  Gosse  and  Ernst  Haeckel  and 
Frederic  Harrison  and  Robert  Blatchford  and 
Maurice  MaeterHnck  and  a  multitude  of  minor 
prophets,  whose  names  we  cannot  stop  to  re- 
call. But  the  claim  is  far  from  convincing. 
Are  not  these  very  men,  in  a  sense,  the  product 
of  a  Christian  agriculture?  Was  not  the  soil 
in  which  they  grew  a  Christian  soil?  The  at- 
mosphere they  breathed,  was  it  not  a  Christian 
atmosphere?  How  much  of  their  wealth  do 
they  owe  to  a  Christian  environment?  Is  it 
possible  to  separate  the  river  from  its  banks 
and  its  tributaries — and  its  source?  The  tree 
is  rooted  in  the  ground  and  the  ground  con- 
tributes everything  to  the  tree.  To  boast  of 
independence  here  were  vain  and  idle  boast- 
ing. And  furthermore  great  beliefs  make  great 
men.  This  pragmatic  test  is  always  a  safe 
criterion.  But  we  must  be  quite  certain  that 
the  substance  is  free  from  admixture.  It  is  not 
always  easy  to  eliminate  the  forces  that  may  be 
unconsciously  operative.  Is  it  not  a  well- 
known  fact  that  sometimes  a  plant  will  live 
on  for  years  after  its  life-giving  sustenance  is 
withdrawn,  just  as  the  momentum  of  the  en- 
gine keeps  it  moving  after  the  steam  is  shut 
off?  The  instance  of  the  California  Sequoia 
brought  to  the  London  Exposition  of  1857,  is 


40     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

a  case  in  point.  It  was  stript  of  its  bark,  and 
a  facsimile  of  the  big  Redwood  was  erected  in 
the  Crystal  Palace.  Now  no  tree  can  live  for 
long  without  its  bark,  but  though  sixty  years 
have  come  and  gone  the  giant  trunk  in  the 
Santa  Cruz  valley  is  still  erect;  which  means 
that  it  had  such  an  accumulated  surplus  of 
vitality  within  it,  that  it  has  been  able  to  post- 
pone disintegration  and  will  continue  to  do  so, 
no  doubt,  for  many  years  to  come.  Its  tenacity 
is  a  matter  of  transmitted  impulse.  The  lime 
tree  of  Niirnberg  and  the  chestnut  at  the  foot 
of  Mount  Etna  are  similar  cases  in  point. 
Their  trunks  are  honeycombed  with  decay. 
But  they  are  still  clinging  to  life  and  braving 
the  tempests.  The  effect  does  not  always  cease 
the  instant  the  cause  is  withdrawn.  The  after- 
glow remains  with  its  lingering  loveliness  long 
after  the  sun  has  gone  down,  but  nevertheless 
it  was  the  great  orb  of  day  that  flung  the  pic- 
ture on  the  wall  of  the  west,  and  held  it  there 
a  little  to  lift  us  into  ecstasy  and  rapture  and 
delight. 

That  was  a  remarkable  testimony  of  Mrs. 
Besant's  when  she  recently  expressed  her  dis- 
appointment that  agnostics  had  done  so  little 
for  humanity,  and  went  on  to  say  that  those 
of  them  who  did  come  forward  to  help  were 
mostly  those  who,  like  herself,  had  been  nur- 


RICHES  OF  THE  MESSENGER      41 

tured  in  the  Christian  enclosure.  Herbert 
Spencer's  father  was  a  Wesleyan  non-conform- 
ist, and  although  he  withdrew  from  that  body 
he  was  to  the  end  of  his  days  a  deeply  devout 
man.  David  Hume  has  been  called  the  prince  of 
agnostics,  but  his  old  mother  was  a  saint  of  the 
Susanna  Wesley  type.  Professor  Huxley,  in  his 
famous  tilt  with  Dr.  Wace,  used  these  words : 
"  I  was  brought  up  in  the  strictest  school  of 
Evangelical  Orthodoxy."  Tom  Paine  had  been 
a  Methodist  preacher  in  London  before  com- 
ing to  America  in  1774.  Renan,  it  is  well 
known,  was  educated  for  the  priesthood; 
Pierre  Loti  is  a  free-thinker,  but  he  sprang 
from  Huguenot  stock.  Matthew  Arnold  was 
somewhat  of  an  iconoclast,  but  under  all  his 
intellectual  negations  there  is  a  solid  base  of 
inherited  religious  conviction.  Nietzsche  says 
that  "  Christianity  is  the  one  great  curse,  the 
one  intrinsic  depravity."  And  yet  Nietzsche's 
father  and  grandfather  were  Lutheran  clergy- 
men. He  had  been  brought  up  in  the  parson- 
age and  from  childhood  had  been  surrounded 
by  a  New  Testament  influence.  Does  this 
count  for  nothing  ?  Can  it  be  dropped  as  a  zero 
item  from  the  equation?  Why,  the  man  had 
been  soaked  in  Evangelical  truth.  He  is  liter- 
ally dripping  with  it.  The  crimson  colour  of  it 
was  in  his  very  blood ;  the  scarlet  thread  was  in 


42      THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

every  fibre  of  his  flesh.  Such  men  are  Hving 
largely  on  the  splendid  inheritance  received 
from  the  past.  A  building  will  sometimes 
stand  a  long  time  after  it  is  undermined.  The 
Jesuits  have  compiled  for  us  their  "Acta  Sanc- 
torum "  with  its  twenty-five  thousand  lives, 
among  them  such  names  as  Loyola,  Francis 
Xavier,  Salmeron,  Peter  Faber,  but  we  must 
challenge  the  right  of  Jesuitism  to  claim  the 
exclusive  culture  of  these  saints.  We  deny, 
indeed,  any  large  or  important  share  in  the 
gracious  development.  There  are  beautiful 
flowers  to  be  found  off  on  the  hillside :  that  is 
true,  no  doubt,  but  it  is  also  true  that  he  who 
would  pluck  a  sixteen-petalled  chrysanthemum 
does  not  turn  to  the  hillside  for  it.  We  are 
not  denying  that  an  occasional  vine  grows  with- 
out the  hedge  instead  of  in  the  vineyard. 
There  are  some  saintly  names  in  the  Confucian 
philosophy.  Heathen  Greece  and  Rome  pro- 
duced some  magnificent  types.  What  stars  in 
the  night  are  Socrates  and  Seneca  and  Au- 
relius !  There  are  exceptional  leaders  like  Lin- 
coln who  never  went  to  college  and  but  little 
to  school;  exceptional  artists  like  Burns;  ex- 
ceptional preachers  like  Moody  and  Bunyan. 
But  it  is  never  safe,  nor  is  it  scientific,  nor  is  it 
wise  to  formulate  a  theory  of  life  from  the 
exceptional. 


RICHES  OF  THE  MESSENGER      43 

And  the  point  we  are  pressing  is  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  righteous- 
ness. He  is  the  world's  standard  of  excellence. 
He  is  the  unit  of  measurement,  the  one  ulti- 
mate appeal.  He  is  back  of  every  upward  im- 
pulse. Our  very  conception  of  virtue  is  Chris- 
tian. What  would  this  man  do?  That  is  the 
infallible  test  of  action.  What  does  this  man 
say?  It  is  final;  the  discussion  is  closed.  "  Ye 
have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said  by  them  of 
old,  but  I  say  unto  you."  No  one  would  think 
to-day  of  taking  Plato's  Republic  as  his  pat- 
tern state.  We  have  outgrown  it.  Parts  of  it 
are  cruel,  parts  are  absurd.  But  Christ's  ideal 
of  righteousness  is  our  norm  of  conduct  still. 
There  is  no  righteousness  like  the  righteous- 
ness of  Jesus.  It  is  incomparable ;  it  is  search- 
ing; it  is  probing;  it  is  radical;  it  is  absolute; 
it  is  burning;  it  is  comprehensive;  it  is  uncon- 
ditional. It  is  so  complete  and  compelling  that 
every  student  of  holiness  uncovers  in  its  pres- 
ence. "  Venice,"  says  a  traveller,  "  is  like 
nothing  but  itself."  Christ  is  like  no  one  but 
Himself.  He  is  not  one  of  a  chorus :  He  is 
alone.  He  is  insensible  to  sin,  and  that  in  an- 
other is  the  greatest  sin.  True,  there  are  critics 
who  find  courage  to  pick  flaws  in  His  char- 
acter; not  many  it  is  true,  just  a  few,  but  as  a 
rule  they  are  not  answered.     They  are  pitied 


44      THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

rather.  They  are  listed  with  such  as  argue 
that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  demagogue.  Be- 
cause, no  matter  what  criticism  thinks,  He 
satisfies  the  conscience  of  the  race.  Some 
things  are  settled  forever,  and  one  is  the  char- 
acter of  Jesus  Christ.  Our  conscience  agrees 
that  if  God  were  to  live  on  this  earth,  His  life 
would  be  just  what  the  life  of  this  man  was. 
John  Morley  tells  us  he  might  say  some  things 
derogatory  if  he  wanted  to,  but  he  will  re- 
frain. One  can  hardly  conceive  a  finer  trib- 
ute to  the  Son  of  Mary  than  that.  When  an 
enemy  knows  something  discreditable  he  will 
not  divulge,  there  surely  must  be  some  reverent 
reason  for  the  silence.  A  modern  reformer 
made  the  astounding  statement  the  other  day 
that  Jesus  would  have  accomplished  more  for 
humanity  had  He  worked  for  science  and 
economics  rather  than  religion.  But  we  will 
not  pause  to  appraise  that  irresponsible  deliver- 
ance, save  to  make  the  sweeping  claim,  by  way 
of  answer,  that  His  name  to-day  is  at  the  back 
of  everything  that  is  best  in  the  uplift  of  the 
race.  From  the  moral  fund  of  the  world  sub- 
tract what  Christianity  has  contributed  and  the 
remainder  would  be  pitifully  minute. 

And  this  singular  man  is  no  sentimental 
dreamer.  He  is  no  weak,  pallid,  effeminate 
figure.     He  is  a  strong,  all-round  man,  sym- 


RICHES  OF  THE  MESSENGER      45 

metrical  in  every  dimension.  Tlie  righteous- 
ness of  the  Christ  is  a  universal  righteousness. 
Nothing  is  excepted.  Nothing  is  exaggerated. 
It  embraces  all  the  fruits  of  the  spirit  in  the 
most  pleasing  proportions.  It  comprises  the 
beautiful  as  well  as  the  true  and  the  good.  No 
victor  in  the  old  Olympic  games  v^as  permitted 
to  have  his  statue  modelled  until  he  had  been 
victorious  in  all  the  five  forms  of  contest. 
Because  to  be  successful  in  three  or  four  might 
imply  that  certain  lines  of  the  body  were  ab- 
normal. And  as  a  perfect  physique  was  the 
aim  of  the  Greek  athlete,  there  must  be  no  dis- 
proportion. The  founder  of  Christianity  ful- 
fils every  measurement.  There  is  no  aspect  of 
perfect  manhood  He  does  not  satisfy.  He  is 
enthusiastic  without  being  fanatical,  emotional 
without  being  hysterical,  imaginative  without 
being  visionary.  We  have  two  limbs  for 
walking,  but  if  one  were  to  grow  an  inch  longer 
than  the  other  we  should  limp.  The  noticeable 
thing  about  Jesus  is  His  freedom  from  limp, 
the  perfect  equilibrium  of  His  nature.  He  has 
power,  but  at  the  same  time  He  has  restraint. 
He  has  a  will  of  steel ;  He  has  a  heart  of  wax. 
He  is  inflexibly  just  and,  at  the  same  time, 
graciously  generous.  He  is  preeminently 
Spiritual,  but  all  the  while  perfectly  natural. 
He  is  not  one  letter  of  the  alphabet.     He  is 


46     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

every  letter.     He  is  the  classic,  the  finished 
poem  of  character. 

And  there  is  no  righteousness  like  the  right- 
eousness He  inspires.  In  fact,  I  was  going  to 
observe  that  there  is  no  righteousness  but  the 
righteousness  He  inspires.  Men  are  more  and 
more  looking  at  things  from  Christ's  angle 
and  accepting  His  valuation  of  them.  The 
modern  v^orld  to-day,  in  so  far  as  it  is  a  good 
world,  is  almost  entirely  the  creation  of  Jesus 
Christ.  There  are  instances  on  record  of  men 
who  have  started  out  to  climb  the  heights  to  the 
Celestial  City  and  found  that  before  they  had 
gone  far  on  the  march  they  were  drawing 
nearer  to  this  man.  He  is  the  starting  point 
and  the  goal  of  every  earnest  pilgrim  toward 
purity — the  Alpha  and  the  Omega.  And  He 
is  at  home  everywhere.  He  belongs  to  the 
world,  not  a  little  corner  of  it.  There  is  noth- 
ing provincial.  In  Him  are  no  racial  distinc- 
tions. He  is  not  the  child  of  His  age.  He  is 
the  child  of  every  age.  People  clamour  for  an 
up-to-date  gospel.  The  plea  is  belittling.  Jesus 
is  above  dates.  He  cannot  be  tied  down  to  any 
detachment  of  time.  There  is  something  time- 
less and  eternal  about  Him,  without  begin- 
ning, without  end.  Alpha  and  Omega,  first  and 
last.  How  striking  the  fact  that  every  advo- 
cate of  a  new  cult  to-day  is  claiming  Jesus. 


RICHES  OF  THE  MESSENGER     47 

He  feels  that  he  can  win  no  converts  without 
the  GaHlean.  Quite  recently  a  Nihilist  was 
addressing  a  meeting  in  Trafalgar  Square  and 
the  gist  of  his  address  was  that  Jesus  was  a 
Nihilist.  We  saw  a  report  of  a  meeting  of 
liquor  men  in  New  York  City  last  winter,  and 
the  speaker  was  claiming  that  if  Jesus  Christ 
were  living  to-day  He  would  vote  to  have 
saloons  open  on  Sunday.  Every  candidate  for 
popular  favour  quotes  Jesus  on  moral  ques- 
tions. The  truth  that  is  in  Secularism  is  the 
truth  Jesus  preached.  The  truth  that  is  in 
Positivism  is  the  truth  He  taught  His  disciples. 
Mark,  He  did  not  say,  I  am  true.  What  He 
said  was  infinitely  greater.  "  I  am  the  truth." 
There  is  an  astronomical  divide  between  say- 
ing I  am  true  and  I  am  the  truth.  Jesus  Christ 
is  true,  but  He  is  infinitely  more.  He  is  the 
truth.  He  is  its  embodiment,  its  expression, 
its  expansion,  its  completion,  its  finality,  its 
enforcement,  its  Alpha  and  Omega.  "  This  is 
My  beloved  Son,  hear  Him." 

in.  And  He  is  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega," 
once  more,  of  Redemption.  He  is  the  alphabet 
and  the  poem  of  Redemption — ^the  preface 
and  the  finale.  As  the  writer  of  the  Hebrews 
put  it,  "  He  is  the  author  and  the  finisher  of 
our  faith."  Freely  He  came  and  fully  He  fin- 
ished the  work  the  Father  gave  Him  to  do. 


48     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

He  and  He  alone  can  take  out  of  the  heart  the 
pride,  the  passion,  the  selfishness,  and  the  sin. 
Redemption  is  the  core  of  His  message.  That 
He  gave  Himself  as  a  sacrifice  is  not  a  limb 
of  the  gospel.  It  is  the  heart  of  the  gospel. 
It  is  the  first  prophetic  utterance  in  the  Bible. 
"  It  shall  bruise  thy  head  and  thou  shalt  bruise 
his  heel."  And  it  is  the  last  ascription  of  praise 
"  unto  Him  that  loveth  us  and  washeth  us  from 
our  sins — to  Him  be  the  glory."  Paul  in  his 
letter  to  the  Colossians  says,  "  In  Him  we  have 
redemption  through  His  blood,  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins.  For  all  things  were  created  by 
Him  and  for  Him."  And  the  writer  to  the 
Hebrews  says,  "  But  we  see  Jesus  tasting  death 
for  every  man.  For  it  became  Him  for  whom 
are  all  things  and  by  whom  are  all  things  to 
make  the  Captain  of  their  salvation  perfect 
through  suffering."  "  To  make  Him  perfect." 
Aye,  and  to  make  us  perfect.  A  young  man 
once  went  to  hear  Hugh  Price  Hughes  preach. 
When  he  returned  his  father  asked  him  about 
the  sermon.  "  He  made  me  feel,"  said  the 
young  man,  "  that  it  was  not  necessary  for 
me  ever  to  sin  again."  This  is  the  glory  and 
uniqueness  of  Jesus.  He  makes  the  feeling 
to  be  a  fact.  He  removes  the  curse  and  the 
stain  and  the  power  and  the  love  of  sin.  At 
the  same  time  that  He  reveals  to  us  our  lamen- 


RICHES  OF  THE  MESSENGER      49 

table  need,  He  discloses  His  own  infinite  and 
gracious  supply. 

I  said  to  an  old  gentleman  once,  as  he  lay- 
dying,  "  Well,  Mr.  Merwin,  you  have  lived  a 
beautiful  life;  you  have  served  the  Master 
some  forty  years  or  more."  It  was  the  first 
time  I  ever  saw  him  ruffled,  the  remark  dis- 
pleased him  so.  "  No,  no,"  he  whispered,  "  I 
want  a  robe  a  little  whiter  than  my  own ;  mine's 
sadly  stained." 

"  Nothing  in  my  hands  I  bring, 
Simply  to  Thy  cross  I  cling." 

And  now  let  us  each  make  to  our  hearts  the 
great  appeal.  Is  He  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of 
our  lives  ?  Because  these  are  His  ironclad  con- 
ditions. If  we  are  His  followers,  what  He  de- 
mands is  complete  allegiance.  Once  He  was 
born  in  a  stable,  but  when  He  is  born  into 
our  hearts  He  declines  every  room  but  the  best. 
"  He  claims  the  bridal  chamber."  That  is  our 
Master's  imperial  imperative  challenge.  May 
it  be  the  joy  of  all  of  us  gladly  to  respond. 

"For  we  do  not  crown  Him  Lord  at  all 
Unless  we  crown  Him  Lord  of  all." 

"Yea  thro*   life,   thro'  death,   thro'   sorrow   and   thro' 
sinning, 

He  shall  suffice  me,  for  He  hath  sufficed; 
Christ  is  the  end,  for  Christ  was  the  beginning, 

Christ  the  beginning,   for  the  end  is  Christ." 


THE  RICHES  OF  THE   MESSAGE 


"And  when  He  had  opened  the  book  He  found  the 
place  where  it  was  written,  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is 
upon  me  because  He  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the 
gospel  to  the  poor:  He  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the 
broken-hearted,  to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives 
and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty 
them  that  are  bruised,  to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year 
of  the  Lord." — Luke  4 :  18. 


Ill 

THE  RICHES  OF  THE  MESSAGE 

THE  man  is  Jesus.  The  place  is  Nazareth. 
He  is  in  the  synagogue,  the  temple 
where  He  had  always  worshipped,  and 
among  the  young  men  and  maidens  with  whom, 
for  thirty  years.  He  had  played  and  companied. 
The  first  time  a  young  student  fills  the  pulpit 
in  the  home  of  his  boyhood,  is  to  him  a  memo- 
rable moment.  Only  those  who  have  passed 
through  the  ordeal  know  how  memorable  it  is. 
To  stand  up  before  the  playmates  of  your  child- 
hood, to  be  the  object  of  their  searching  and 
curious  regard,  to  be  eyed — well,  we  were  go- 
ing to  say — as  a  criminal  is ;  to  see  before  you 
father  and  mother  and  kinsman  and  those  who, 
in  boyhood's  days,  have  been  your  guides  and 
teachers;  and  then  to  withdraw  yourself  from, 
and  forget,  the  interesting  assemblage  and  feel 
God's  presence  alone — that  is  a  task  before 
which  some  of  us  have  paled  and  quailed  and 
no  doubt  failed.  How  distinctly  and  sharply 
the  writer  can  recall  his  own  experience! 
How  vividly  it  all  returns !  the  hymns,  the  an- 
53 


54     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

them,  the  sermon,  the  faces,  the  handshakes, 
the  congratulations,  and  especially  the  remark, 
at  the  close,  of  the  old  Scotch  elder  who  knew 
intimately  the  family  history,  as  he  gripped  our 
hand  in  strong,  farmer-like  fashion,  "  Well, 
ma  boy,   I  was  a-pityin'  ye  all  over." 

Jesus  is  in  Nazareth — His  home.  He  goes 
to  church,  as  is  His  custom.  He  enters  the 
pulpit  and  reads  the  appointed  portion  of  the 
prophetic  writings  for  the  day,  "  The  spirit  of 
the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  He  hath  anointed 
me  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor :  He  hath 
sent  me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach 
deliverance  to  the  captives  and  recovering  of 
sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that 
are  bruised,  to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of 
the  Lord."  And  He  closed  the  book  and  sat 
down,  and  then  began  to  say  unto  them,  "  To- 
day hath  this  scripture  been  fulfilled  in  your 
ears."  What  a  wealthy  and  wondrous  an- 
nouncement !  It  is  a  crown  of  shining  and 
costly  jewels.  Together  they  constitute,  as  it 
were,  the  diadem  of  His  royal  authority.  Let 
us  fix  our  eyes  for  a  little  upon  the  splendour. 
Let  us  take  down  each  separate  gem  and  study 
it,  examining  it  in  the  light  of  His  gracious 
ministry.  And  it  will  be  observed  at  the  first 
glance  that  the  speaker  claims  to  have  been  or- 
dained for  His  divine  and  holy  mission.     Like 


THE  RICHES  OF  THE  MESSAGE     55 

the  prophets  and  priests  and  kings  of  the  old 
economy,  He  was  anointed  at  the  commence- 
ment of  His  public  career.  "  And  there  shall 
come  forth  a  rod  out  of  the  stem  of  Jesse,  and 
a  branch  shall  grow  out  of  His  roots,  and  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall  rest  upon  Him,  the 
Spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding."  It  was 
thus  that  the  Master  was  equipped  and  set 
apart  for  His  work.  And  not  otherwise  is  it 
with  those  whom  He  sends  forth  now  anew. 
It  will  be  remembered  that,  after  having  taught 
His  own  disciples  for  three  years.  His  last  in- 
struction was,  "  Tarry  ye  in  the  city  of  Jeru- 
salem until  ye  be  endued  with  power  from  on 
high."  God  wants  anointed  preachers.  Never 
was  there  so  clamant  a  call  for  them  as  to- 
day. The  ministry  is  not  a  human  avocation ; 
it  is  a  divine  vocation.  The  pulpit  needs 
university  graduates,  but  it  needs  Holy  Ghost 
graduates  immeasurably  more.  Alas !  the  cry- 
ing lack  to-day  of  the  sacred  calling,  be  it 
said  with  a  sting  of  sorrow,  is  unction,  and 
no  college  can  confer  that ;  no  seminary  can 
bestow  it;  no  schools  of  divinity  can  put  it  into 
their  curriculums.  It  comes  from  on  high.  It 
is  saved  men  that  God  uses  still  to  save  men. 
Prayer  moves  the  hand  that  moves  the  world. 
"  Yes,"  said  Mackay  of  Uganda,  "  but  the 
fingers  of  that  hand  are  consecrated  fingers." 


56     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

I.  The  first  jewel  in  the  crown  is  what  the 
Evangelist  terms  ''  Good  News."  "  Glad  Tid- 
ings," Isaiah  calls  it.  A  bright  and  lustrous 
stone!  Not  something  flat  and  stale  and  life- 
less; something  fresh  and  flashing,  rather: 
News!  Good  News!  The  world  had  never 
known  the  like  before.  For  it  was  a  communi- 
cation of  grace.  And  that,  to  begin  with,  was 
a  novel  thing.  Every  message  that  the  heart 
of  man  had  heard  hitherto  had  been  a  mes- 
sage of  merit  of  some  kind  or  other.  Do  so 
and  so.  Work  out  the  problem  yourself.  Go 
forth  on  some  dusty  pilgrimage.  Crucify, 
purify,  gratify.  This  has  been  the  insistent 
heresy  of  the  ages.  Earn  the  blessing.  It 
has  been  the  most  tenacious  half-truth  of  re- 
ligious history :  "  Work  out  your  own  salva- 
tion with  fear  and  trembling !  "  But  stopping 
there  is  the  flat  denial  of  the  Evangel.  For 
the  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life,  and  only  that 
can  be  worked  out  which  He  hath  worked  in. 
Self-reliance  is  the  last  word  of  pagan- 
ism ;  God-reliance  is  the  first  word  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

And  the  gift  is  for  the  poor.  Here  was  an- 
other fresh  line  of  departure.  "  Blessed  are 
the  meek,  for  they  shall  inherit  the  earth." 
Verily,  the  world  had  never  heard  such  un- 
earthly   announcement.     "  To    the   poor     the 


THE  RICHES  OF  THE  MESSAGE     57 

gospel  is  preached."  Not  the  poor  in  purse, 
however,  it  is  imperative  to  remember.  There 
is  more  preaching  to  the  rich  in  the  Bible  than 
to  the  poor.  Ruskin  notes  that  almost  all  of 
the  New  Testament  parables  are  for  the  rich. 
The  rich  young  man  was  told  to  go  and  sell  all 
that  he  had.  The  parable  of  the  unjust  steward 
relates  to  the  proper  use  of  wealth.  So  of 
Dives  and  Lazarus.  So  with  the  treasure  hid 
in  the  field.  So  likewise  of  the  parable  of  the 
pounds.  The  Great  Teacher  is  ever  warning 
His  hearers  against  the  sin  of  the  non-use  or 
the  misuse  of  a  trust.  Indeed,  the  Christian 
Church  is  beginning  to  feel  that  the  rich  need 
the  gospel  to-day  fully  more  than  the  poor. 
The  godless  rich  is  becoming  a  very  touching 
tragedy.  In  one  of  the  English  Men  of  Let- 
ters' series,  Mr.  Edmund  Gosse  deals  with  the 
life  of  Jeremy  Taylor.  And  speaking  of  his 
remarkable  sermons  Mr.  Gosse  says  that  the 
absence  in  them  of  any  reference  to  the  life  of 
the  poor  is  a  singular  fact.  Jeremy  Taylor 
preached  to  an  aristocratic  congregation  in 
London.  Within  a  stone's  throw  of  his  church 
there  was  the  most  aggravated  poverty,  but  the 
great  divine  never  once  alluded  to  it.  And, 
says  Gosse,  by  way  of  criticism,  "  Is  it  not  a 
very  curious  thing  that  a  representative  of  the 
meek  and  lowly  Nazarene,  in  his  vision  of  the 


58     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

world,  should  see  only  well-to-do  people?" 
Edmund  Gosse  is  right.  His  criticism  is  cor- 
rect. It  is,  surely,  not  the  mind  of  the  Master. 
To  Jesus  there  is  no  rich,  there  is  no  poor.  He 
moves  among  men  as  a  physician  does.  The 
true  physician  knows  nothing  of  circumstances. 
He  knows  only  suffering.  He  goes  where 
there  is  sorrow  and  pain  and  need.  The  thrill- 
ing climacteric  note  in  the  Evangel  of  Jesus 
is  that  it  is  for  all,  and  for  all  alike.  His  mes- 
sage is  not  for  democrats,  aristocrats,  or  pluto- 
crats. Some  there  are  who  claim  that  the 
Nazarene  was  a  great  social  reformer,  that  He 
came  to  be  the  champion  of  labour  against  capi- 
tal. But  the  claim  on  its  face  must  be  false. 
For  did  He  not  Himself  deny  that  His  mission 
was  to  set  friends  at  variance  ?  He  came  not  to 
pit  class  against  class,  but  to  fuse  and  weld 
together  in  a  compact  and  loving  brotherhood. 
Many  shall  come  from  the  East  and  from  the 
West,  from  the  North  and  from  the  South, 
and  shall  sit  down  under  the  banner  of  the 
Nazarene.  No,  Jesus  belongs  to  no  class.  He 
was  poor,  but  He  does  not  belong  to  poverty. 
He  was  the  root  and  the  offspring  of  David, 
but  He  does  not  belong  to  royalty ;  He  was  a 
carpenter,  but  He  does  not  belong  to  labour; 
He  was  a  Jew,  but  He  does  not  belong  to 
Judea;  He  was  divine,  but  He  does  not  be- 


THE  RICHES  OF  THE  MESSAGE     59 

long  to  divinity;  He  calls  Himself  the  Son  of 
Man;  that  is  to  say,  He  belongs  to  humanity. 
The  gospel  has  no  favourites.  There  is  no 
partiality  in  its  gifts.  They  are  all  free.  "  Ho, 
every  one  that  thirsteth,  come."  No  one  is 
suppressed,  no  one  particularly  is  expressed. 
Its  password  is  "  whosoever."  True,  no  doubt, 
it  finds  its  heartiest  welcome  among  the  poor. 
It  makes  its  greatest  conquests  there.  Its 
proudest  laurels  are  found,  as  a  rule,  among 
the  lowly — the  lowly  in  circumstance.  Person- 
ally I  believe  the  strongest  churches  in  our  land 
to-day  are  not  the  rich  churches.  Contrari- 
wise, indeed,  not  infrequently  they  are  the  very 
poor  churches.  When  Watts  was  once  asked 
to  paint  a  picture  of  a  dead  church,  it  will  be 
remembered  he  did  not  paint  a  little  country 
chapel  in  decay.  It  was  a  handsome  city  edifice 
with  stained-glass  windows  and  rich  upholstery 
and  bronze  choir  loft  that  the  artist  drew.  A 
magnet  will  lift  pins  and  nails  and  rusty  iron, 
but  it  has  no  affinity  for  pearls  or  diamonds,  or 
gold  or  silver.  The  gospel  is  a  magnet,  but 
not,  it  would  seem,  for  the  magnates  of  this 
world.  Mr.  Beecher  called  the  reign  of  Christ 
the  reign  of  the  common  people.  And  it  is  the 
common  people  still  who  hear  Him  gladly. 
And  is  it  not  the  grandest  possible  tribute  to 
the  Man  that  He  continues  to  draw,  as  in  the 


60     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

days  of  His  flesh,  the  simple-hearted  to  His 
feet?  Is  it  not  the  crowning  glory  of  our  re- 
ligion that  it  throws  a  halo  on  the  field  where 
the  workingman  toils,  that  its  splendour  lights 
up  the  grey  lives  of  men  in  their  drab  and  sober 
routine  ?  Jesus,  I  repeat,  belongs  to  humanity. 
He  is  the  universal  homo.  His  gospel  is  for 
the  poor,  the  poor  in  spirit.  This  shuts  out 
neither  wealth  nor  culture;  it  bars  neither  bond 
nor  free.  Many  there  are,  to  be  sure,  who 
possess  this  world's  goods  in  abundance  who 
yet  are  lowly  in  spirit, — and  great,  no  doubt, 
will  be  their  reward. 

"  Still  Stands  thine  ancient  sacrifice, 
An  humble  and  a  contrite  heart." 

And  this  thrives  best  in  the  soil  of  poverty. 
Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for  theirs  is  the 
gospel,  theirs  is  the  glory,  theirs  is  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven. 

H.  Another  precious  stone  in  the  coronet  of 
our  King  is  healing,  health,  wholeness.  He 
comes  to  heal  the  broken-hearted.  He  comes 
to  make  men  whole.  The  doctor  can  set  a 
broken  bone,  but  who  hath  skill  to  knit  a  broken 
heart  ?  Let  us  attend  unto  the  Psalmist :  "  The 
Lord  is  nigh  unto  them  that  are  of  a  broken 
heart :  Many  are  the  afflictions  of  the  righteous, 
but  the  Lord  delivereth  him  out  of  them  all. 


THE  RICHES  OF  THE  MESSAGE     61 

He  keepeth  all  his  bones;  not  one  of  them  is 
broken."  Or  again:  "Make  me  to  hear  joy 
and  gladness,  that  the  bones  which  thou  hast 
broken  may  rejoice."  Or  once  more:  "He 
healeth  the  broken  in  heart  and  bindeth  up 
their  wounds."  How  full  of  ointments  and 
liniments  and  balms  of  every  virtue  Nature  is ! 
How  she  loves  to  restore!  How  she  comes 
not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil!  Fracture  a  rib, 
or  sprain  a  muscle,  or  bruise  a  nerve,  and  Na- 
ture is  on  the  scene  long  before  the  surgeon. 
No  sooner  is  the  mischief  done  than  she  begins 
her  kindly  ministry  of  repair.  What  a  marvel- 
lous germicide  is  the  sunshine!  What  vigour 
on  the  mountain  top !  What  a  tonic  in  the  salt 
sea  air !  What  virtue  in  the  groves  of  eucalyp- 
tus and  pine !  And  if  Nature  can  heal  the  body 
cannot  the  Lord  of  Nature  energise  the  spirit? 
Yes,  Jesus  is  a  physician.  Well  has  He  been 
termed  the  "  Great  Physician."  It  is  thus  that 
He  describes  Himself.  "  They  that  are  whole 
have  no  need  of  a  physician,  but  they  that  are 
sick."  He  comes  not  to  those  that  are  well, 
but  to  those  who  are  ill.  When  on  earth  His 
great  mission  was  to  heal,  and  'tis  His  supreme 
function  still.  "  The  sun  of  righteousness 
hath  arisen  with  healing  in  His  wings."  He 
can  heal  all  manner  of  diseases  as  in  the  days 
of  His  flesh,  but  His  ministry  is  primarily 


62     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

spiritual    to-day.     A    specialist    He    in    soul- 
invalidism. 

Last  spring  a  man  came  to  our  official  board 
one  evening  to  present  himself  for  church  mem- 
bership. Knowing  something  of  his  record, 
we  were  all  more  than  a  little  surprised.  In- 
deed, one  of  the  officials  was  so  agreeably  as- 
tonished that  he  ventured,  "  And  what  led  you 
to  think  of  the  step,  Mr.  Voorhies?"  His 
answer  was  brief,  but  we  understood :  "  I  had 
a  beautiful  little  flower  in  my  garden,"  he 
began,  "  but  the  Lord  came  with  His  shears," 
and  here  his  voice  trembled  and  the  sentence 
was  left  unfinished.  Are  you  carrying  a 
wounded  and  broken  heart?  Let  me  say  that 
your  broken  heart  may  be  healed.  It  can 
be  restored, — "  He  restoreth  my  soul."  There 
is  no  sorrow  He  cannot  soothe ;  there  is 
no  fever  He  cannot  allay.  John  G.  Paton, 
the  Missionary  to  the  New  Hebrides,  tells 
us  in  his  Autobiography  of  the  death  of  his 
young  wife  and  her  baby.  He  tells  us  how, 
with  his  own  hands,  he  dug  their  graves  along- 
side the  little  cabin,  and  then  made  a  border 
around  it  with  blocks  of  white  coral.  And  the 
spot  became  to  him  a  shrine  where  he  claimed 
the  New  Hebrides  for  God.  Then  he  con- 
cluded that  most  pathetic  chapter  with  these 
■yvords,  "  But  for  Jesus  and  His  fellowship  I 


THE  RICHES  OF  THE  MESSAGE     63 

should  have  gone  mad."  "  All  our  troubles 
come  back  laughing,"  said  the  old  divine, 
"  when  we  bring  them  to  the  Cross."  "  God 
shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes." 
This  is  the  heartening  promise,  but  must  we 
push  its  fulfilment  entirely  into  the  future  afar? 
Is  there  not  a  partial  satisfaction  for  to-day? 
One  of  the  saddest  confessions  in  literature  is 
Richard  Jeffries',  in  "  The  Story  of  My 
Heart."  "  For  grief  there  is  no  consolation. 
It  is  useless  to  fill  our  hearts  with  bubbles.  A 
loved  one  is  gone,  and  as  to  the  future — it  is 
unknown.  To  assure  ourselves  otherwise  is  to 
soothe  the  mind  with  illusions.  There  is  no 
consolation.  There  is  no  relief.  There  is  no 
hope  certain;  the  whole  system  is  a  mere  illu- 
sion. I,  who  hope  so  much,  and  am  so  rapt 
up  in  the  soul,  know  full  well  that  there  is  no 
certainty."  How  sad!  How  darkf  How 
grave-like!  What  gloom!  How  at  variance 
with  the  teachings  of  Him  who  said,  "  Let  not 
your  heart  be  troubled."  "  I  am  the  Light  of 
the  World."  "  I  am  the  Resurrection  and  the 
Life."  "  I  am  the  bright  and  morning  star!  " 
**  Come  unto  Me  and  I  will  give  you  rest." 
"  Ye  shall  be  sorrowful,  but  your  sorrow  shall 
be  turned  into  joy." 

III.  There  is  another  illuminating  word  in 
this  series  that  throws  light  at  a  diversity  of 


64     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

angles — the  word  liberty.  "  To  preach  de- 
liverance to  the  captives  " — captives,  of  course, 
to  sin.  The  mischief  of  sin  is  its  captivating 
power.  It  establishes  a  mastery  over  us.  Each 
act  is  a  spider's  thread,  but  the  cumulative 
strength  is  that  of  a  cable.  Gulliver  fell 
asleep  in  the  land  of  the  Lilliputians.  An  army 
of  the  little  fellows  no  larger  than  one's  finger 
came  and  bound  him  with  gossamer  strings, 
but  in  the  end  he  was  a  prisoner.  Sin  is 
slavery !  Salvation  is  deliverance !  "  I  am  with 
thee  to  deliver  thee,"  says  Jeremiah.  "  Our 
God  is  able  to  deliver,  and  will  deliver,"  insists 
Daniel.  "  Who  gave  Himself  for  our  sins  that 
He  might  deliver  us  from  this  present  evil 
world,"  writes  the  great  Apostle  to  the  Gen- 
tiles. And  in  his  last  words  of  counsel  to 
Timothy  he  exclaims,  "  The  Lord  shall  deliver 
me  from  every  evil  work,  and  will  preserve  me 
into  His  heavenly  Kingdom." 

Mr.  Harold  Begbie  has  given  us  a  book 
which  he  calls  "  Broken  Earthenware,"  and  by 
"  Broken  Earthenware  "  he  means  the  cracked, 
mutilated  jars  that  have  been  picked  up  from 
the  waste  heap  and  mended  and  made  service- 
able for  the  king.  It  is  a  marvellous  tribute 
to  the  power  of  Christianity  to  save  and  re- 
deem and  transform  and  restore.  For,  in  our 
study   of  comparative   religions  let  us  never 


THE  RICHES  OF  THE  MESSAGE     65 

forget  one  thing,  viz.,  that  no  other  reHgion 
ever  even  entertains  the  idea  of  making  a 
broken  vessel  new.  The  book  is  the  story  of  a 
series  of  present-day  miracles.  It  tells  of  the 
work  done  by  a  beautiful,  delicate  young  girl — 
a  Salvation  Army  lassie — who  threw  herself 
into  the  very  wickedest  part  of  London,  among 
the  roughs  and  toughs,  to  labour  for  her  Mas- 
ter. And  the  volume  is  a  simple  narrative  of 
nine  of  the  jewels  that  she  found  and  polished 
for  her  crown.  Let  us  just  instance  one — the 
first  one  cited.  He  is  called  the  Puncher.  He 
was  a  prize-fighter  by  profession,  and  it  would 
seem  as  though  he  had  dropped  about  as  low  as 
a  human  being  could  possibly  fall  and  still 
retain  the  human  semblance.  The  depravity 
of  the  man  is  almost  unthinkable.  So  low  down 
the  incline  had  he  gone  that  he  was  seriously 
meditating  the  murdering  of  his  wife  "  for  the 
fun  of  it,"  and  still  he  was  plunging  on  at  a 
reeling  momentum.  He  was  in  a  saloon  drink- 
ing at  the  time  it  happened.  At  the  time  what 
happened?  Well,  let  us  enquire,  for  some- 
thing extraordinary  took  place — ^that  is  sure. 
We  cannot  stop  to  detail,  but  anyway,  he  came 
out  of  the  evil  resort,  went  direct  to  his  wife 
whom  he  had  marked  for  murder,  and  this  is 
what  he  said,  "  Mollie,  I  am  going  to  join  the 
Salvation  Army.     I  am  going  to  see  the  little 


66     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

angel-adjutant  to-night  "  (this  being  the  name 
by  which  the  little  leader  was  known  in  the 
district).  Mollie,  of  course,  was  incredulous, 
but  they  went  to  the  meeting.  They  both 
marched  up  to  the  penitents'  bench.  And  now 
may  we  quote  from  the  book?  "  I  cannot  de- 
scribe my  sensations.  The  past  dropped  clean 
away  from  me;  it  dropped  like  a  ragged  gar- 
ment. An  immense  weight  was  lifted  from  my 
brain.  I  felt  light  as  air.  I  felt  clean.  I  felt 
happy.  I  felt  my  chest  swell.  I  cannot  say 
what  it  was.  All  I  know  is  that  there  at  that 
bench  I  was  dismantled  of  all  horror  and 
clothed  afresh  in  newness  and  joy." 

And  the  other  stories  cited  are  quite  as  re- 
markable. They  are  all  illustrations  of  deliver- 
ance from  a  most  incredible  captivity.  There 
is  nothing  in  Holy  Writ  more  wonderful.  The 
change  in  these  poor  derelicts  seems  simple,  but 
behind  it  is  the  mighty  power  of  the  gospel 
of  the  Cross,  and  the  truth  for  which  that 
gospel  stands — that  the  very  lowest  can  be 
loved  and  lifted  into  the  liberty  of  the  Light  of 
God.  "  That  which  is  crooked  cannot  be  made 
straight."  But  it  can.  As  the  black  lump  of 
coke  may  be  crystallised  into  the  sparkling  dia- 
mond, and  as  the  common  soil  beneath  our  feet 
may  be  refined  and  brought  forth  as  the  clean, 
shining  aluminum,  just  so  may  the  vilest  repro- 


THE  RICHES  OF  THE  MESSAGE     67 

bate  be  transformed  by  the  grace  of  God  into 
the  image  of  Jesus  Christ.  This  is  the  gospel, 
and  if  it  is  true,  then,  surely,  no  argument  from 
modern  scepticism  need  worry  us.  Of  course, 
if  the  truth  be  identified  with  a  book,  then 
criticism  directed  against  the  book  might  shake 
our  faith.  But  let  us  understand  right  here 
that  Christianity  never  has  been  dependent  on 
any  literature.  No  literature  could  ever  have 
established  it  if  it  had  not  been  first  a  fact. 
Throw  the  Bible  overboard  and  you  still  have 
the  Christ  to  confront.  Jesus  Christ  is  a  liv- 
ing, working  dynamic  in  human  society  to-day. 
He  can  lift  men  and  women  out  of  their  im- 
potence by  the  simple  power  of  loving. 

IV.  Still  another  stone  of  singular  lustre 
awaits  our  regard — Vision.  "  Restoration  of 
sight  to  the  blind."  Sin  is  blindness:  salva- 
tion is  seeing.  Nineteen  times  in  Scripture  are 
we  told  that  sin  is  blindness.  The  first  result 
of  the  gospel  is  enlightenment.  It  opens  men's 
minds.  It  gives  men  sight.  It  turns  them  from 
darkness  to  light  and  from  the  power  of  Satan 
unto  God.  "  I  am  come  that  they  which  see  not 
may  see."  No  word  describes  the  work  of  re- 
generation better  than  the  word  illumination — 
the  dispelling  of  the  dark.  "  The  heathen  in 
his  blindness,"  so  the  old  hymn  puts  it,  "  bows 
down  to  wood  and  stone."     "  In  his  blind- 


68     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

ness !  "  When  the  prodigal  came  to  himself  his 
eyes  were  opened  and  he  saw — he  saw  his  true 
condition :  he  saw  his  shame :  he  saw  his  father : 
he  saw  the  old  home.  "  The  entrance  of  Thy 
word  giveth  light."  "  He  that  followeth  Me," 
says  Jesus,  "  shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but 
shall  have  the  light  of  life." 

The  greatest  gift  to  a  human  life  is  the  gift 
of  vision.  It  makes  the  poet,  the  preacher,  the 
painter.  Malebranche  used  to  pull  down  the 
blinds  of  his  room  in  midday  that  he  might  the 
better  see.  It  is  the  opening  of  life's  inner  shut- 
ters to  the  glory  and  wonder  of  the  world. 
The  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament  were  called 
seers,  because  they  saw  the  drift  and  trans- 
figuration of  things  in  the  light  of  the  eternal. 
"  Moses  endured  as  seeing  Him  who  is  in- 
visible." "  Where  there  is  no  vision  the  peo- 
ple perish."  Some  people  see  nothing  because 
their  life  is  imprisoned.  They  are  shut  in. 
They  are  bounded  by  stone  walls.  Some  see 
nothing  because  they  have  no  conception  of 
values.  Most  people  see  but  little.  It  is  part 
of  the  business  of  education  to  open  the  mind's 
eye,  to  lead  out,  to  enlarge  the  intellectual  out- 
look, to  cultivate  the  powers  of  observation. 
The  aim  of  education  is  not  accumulation  but 
awakening.  What  is  an  institution  of  learning 
but  a  place  where  young  men  have  been  taught 


THE  RICHES  OF  THE  MESSAGE     69 

to  perceive?  What  is  a  great  capitalist  but  a 
seer  in  business?  The  world  of  nature  greets 
us  every  morning  with  intimate  flashes  of 
freshness  and  loveliness,  but  how  rarely  we 
respond !  The  farmer  sees  a  flower  and  calls 
it  a  weed,  but  the  botanist  looks  at  it  and  ob- 
serves "  a  bit  of  heaven  let  down."  The  cow 
surveys  the  landscape  and  it  suggests  clover; 
the  poet  looks  thereat  and  sees  a  poem.  John 
Burroughs  says  that  "  some  men  are  born  with 
eyes  in  their  heads  and  some  with  buttons." 
Mrs.  Browning  speaks  of  "  every  common  bush 
aflame  with  God."  But  how  many  see  the 
flame!  How  many,  alas!  see  nothing  but  the 
berries  on  the  bush!  Old  Homer  was  blind 
and  poor,  but  his  dead,  sightless  eyes  flashed 
with  the  glory  of  an  inner  light.  Raphael, 
on  being  asked  how  he  came  to  paint  such  pic- 
tures, replied,  "  I  dream  dreams  and  then  I 
paint  my  dreams."  Two  men  travel  through 
Palestine.  To  the  one  it  is  a  most  uninterest- 
ing trip — commonplace,  indeed :  to  the  other 
it  is  hallowed  ground.  Every  spot  is  trans- 
figured. How  the  past  lives  and  breathes  again ! 
It  is  another  "  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold." 
There  is  nothing  in  the  Trossachs  that  is  not 
to  be  found  in  our  own  Adirondacks — lakes, 
peaks,  moors,  heaths,  crags,  coves,  ravines, 
waterfalls,  pines,  laurels — only  that  no  Scott 


70     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

has  yet  appeared  to  relieve  them  for  us  and 
show  us  their  fascinating  romance.  The  mir- 
ror does  not  reflect  anything  that  is  not  already 
in  the  room.  What  have  you  seen  to-day? 
What  heard  ?  Did  you  hear  the  laugh  of  that 
little  child  in  the  street  ?  Ah,  you  are  a  mother 
and  thought  of  your  own  baby.  What  mother 
is  there  who  does  not  see  a  loveliness  in  her 
child  that  no  one  else  sees !  Did  you  hear  that 
soft,  low  note  in  the  treetop  this  evening  ?  Ah, 
then  you  love  them :  it  was  the  linnet's  good- 
night. Few  heard  it.  So  oft  our  ears  are 
stone-deaf  to  the  music  about  us.  When  Christ 
touches  our  ears  what  melodies  we  hear! 
When  He  touches  our  eyes  what  loveliness  we 
see! 

How  dull  and  blind  we  are!  How  full  of 
the  grime  of  the  street  are  our  eyes.  Richard 
Jeffries  speaks  of  men  "  Mesmerised  by  mat- 
ter and  incapable  of  knowing  soul  values." 
This  is  the  tragedy  of  materialism.  Men  do 
not  see  the  priceless.  We  are  not  rich  because 
we  possess  things.  We  think  we  are,  but  we 
are  not.  We  are  rich  only  in  proportion  as  we 
see  things.  It  is  not  what  we  have  that  makes 
us  happy.  It  is  what  we  are.  And  we  are 
what  we  see.  Life  is  bubbling  over  with  good 
things  if  we  could  only  see  them.  The  spiritual 
world  is  all  about  us,  in  the  rush  and  roar  of 


THE  RICHES  OF  THE  MESSAGE     71 

our  avenues,  in  the  bustle  and  clatter  and 
traffic,  in  the  lives  of  the  people.  It  only 
needs  an  eye  to  discern  it.  "  Except  a  man  be 
bom  again  he  cannot  see."  So  the  new  birth 
is  simply  a  new  vision.  Oh,  for  grace-washed 
eyes!  This  is  the  glorious  uniqueness  of 
Jesus.  This  is  why  He  never  despairs  of  any 
sinner.  He  sees  the  slumbering  possibility  in 
every  life.  He  looked  at  Simon  and  saw 
Cephas.  He  looked  at  Saul  and  saw  Paul. 
In  every  man  there  are  two  men — there  is  the 
man  as  he  is  and  the  man  as  he  may  be.  Jesus 
sees  both.  It  is  along  the  journey  between 
what  we  are  and  what  we  may  be  that  He  leads 
us.  He  puts  into  our  hearts  a  photograph  of 
what  we  will  be  to-morrow.  So  we  are  saved 
by  hope.  It  is  as  with  the  sculptor.  The 
sculptor  looks  at  the  rough  mass  of  marble. 
He  sees  a  possible  Venus  in  the  block.  It  is  the 
insight  of  faith.  Faith  sees  something  which 
the  eye  cannot  see.  The  criticism  has  been 
made  repeatedly  that  no  such  lad  ever  lived  as 
George  Macdonald  has  portrayed  in  Sir  Gibbie. 
But  the  truth  is  that  George  Macdonald  looked 
at  a  poor  ragged  street  urchin  and  saw  a  man. 
Last  summer  the  newspapers  told  us  of  a 
unique  funeral  in  Chicago.  The  man  had  been 
a  manufacturer.  Around  his  grave  were  gath- 
ered a  dozen  men,  all  of  whom  tarried  a  mo- 


72     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

ment  after  the  relatives  had  gone.  Who  were 
these  men?  Every  one  of  them  was  a  released 
convict,  to  whom  the  deceased  had  given  a  job 
and  a  fresh  start.  They  barely  knew  each 
other,  but  every  one  had  come  with  a  bunch 
of  flowers  to  pay  this  tribute  to  the  memory  of 
a  nobleman  who  had  detected  in  them  a  faint 
remaining  trace  of  the  image  of  their  common 
Father.  So  to  him  they  were  brothers.  Oh, 
Master,  open  our  eyes  that  we  may  recognise 
our  brothers.  Open  them  that  we  may  regard 
our  own  soiled  rags  and  Thine  immaculate 
robe.  Especially  our  hearts  wilt  Thou  not  be 
pleased  to  open,  that  we  may  accept  Thy  gospel, 
Thy  healing.  Thy  liberty.  Thy  love? 


THE  RICHES  OF  FORGIVENESS 


"  If  we  confess  our  sins,  He  is  faithful  and  righteous 
to  forgive  us  our  sins  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  un- 
righteousness."— I  John  1 :  9. 


IV 
THE  RICHES  OF  FORGIVENESS 

IF  we  confess  our  sins :  not  our  crimes, 
mark.  Most  likely  none  of  us  is  a  crim- 
inal, but  we  all  are  sinners.  "  For  all  have 
sinned  and  fallen  short."  Crime  is  but  a  small 
corner  of  the  great  sin-swept  continent  in 
which,  alas!  we  every  one  reside.  Crime  is 
a  social  state.  It  is  governed  by  human  law. 
But  sin  is  spiritual  territory.  It  belongs  to 
God's  jurisdiction.  Crime  can  be  weighed  in 
the  balances  of  human  justice  and  its  ordinari- 
ness or  enormity  adjudicated,  but  who  hath 
scales  sufficiently  sensitive  to  record  the  gravity 
of  a  sin?  No  man  hath.  Sin  is  evil-doing  in 
the  heavenly  Fairbanks.  It  is  the  transgres- 
sion of  the  law.  Whose  law?  His  law. 
"  Against  Thee,  Thee  only,  have  I  sinned." 
Sin  is  when  a  man  is  alone,  and  face  to  face 
with  his  Maker.  We  sin  against  our  bodies, 
but  only  because  our  bodies  are  the  temples  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.    We  offend  against  man,  but 

we  sin  against  God. 

75 


76     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

Alas !  what  dupes  we  are !  Great  and  tragic 
is  our  gift  of  self-illusion.  Sin  is  the  hollow 
skeleton  of  the  heart,  could  we  but  see  it.  It 
is  the  spectre  that  has  haunted  the  imagination 
of  genius.  Paul  trembled  when  he  was  brought 
face  to  face  with  the  vampire.  So,  likewise, 
did  Shakespeare.  It  was  to  them  the  one 
daunting  and  distressing  downfall.  To  him 
who  seeth  a  soul  in  ruins  Baalbec  is  tame. 
Jesus  Christ  never  attempted  to  work  into  this 
shroud  of  sackcloth  one  thread  of  colour.  His 
hatred  of  sin  was  well-nigh  furious.  He  used 
the  most  withering  words  in  language  to  de- 
scribe it.  Sin,  to  Him,  was  ugliness,  ungodli- 
ness, rebellion,  the  final  failure,  eclipse,  dark- 
ness, doom.  "  He  went  out  and  it  was  night." 
It  was  the  ghastly  wound  of  the  Cosmos.  It 
was  the  crowning  horror  in  the  dissecting-room 
of  life.  And  to  his  greatest  Apostle  it  was  the 
same  black,  baleful  bankruptcy.  It  was  the 
mockery  and  the  mystery  and  the  tragedy  of 
the  soul.  It  was  the  blot  on  the  world's  beauty, 
the  secret  of  her  sore  and  moaning  and  groan- 
ing misfortune.  "  The  whole  creation  travail- 
eth  in  pain."  Those  there  are  to-day  who  make 
light  of  sin.  They  call  it  the  other  side  of 
goodness,  the  shadow  on  the  canvas,  a  lesser 
degree  of  holiness,  the  mistake  of  the  beginner, 
a  cinder  in  the  eye,  a  splinter  in  the  flesh,  a 


THE  RICHES  OF  FORGIVENESS      77 

backward  eddy  in  the  stream,  the  sentimental- 
ism  of  aspiration,  a  secretion  of  the  soul.  It 
is  to  them  simply  immaturity,  imperfection, 
error,  tunelessness,  misfortune.  Matthew  Ar- 
nold said  that  sin  is  not  a  monster  but  an  in- 
firmity. These  people  are  deaf  to  the  discord. 
They  are  blind  to  the  forbidding.  They  weave 
a  verbal  veil  of  coloured  court -plaster  over  the 
suppurating  sore.  They  ignore  the  riot  raging 
within.  But  on  the  page  of  the  Apostle  sin  is 
made  to  look  just  what  it  is.  "  Sin  that  it 
might  appear  sin."  It  is  denuded.  It  loses  the 
dazzle  of  its  dress,  the  glitter  of  its  jewelry,  the 
sorcery  of  its  siren  song.  It  is  graceless,  grim, 
ghastly,  godless.  It  is  the  one  loathsome  real- 
ity. It  is  leprose,  pimply,  scaly.  It  leads  the 
soul  to  that  inevitable  finish  where  the  grave  is 
dug.     "  For  the  wages  of  sin  is  death." 

Let  us  then,  for  a  moment,  pursue  the  path 
of  Scripture  to  this  black  and  bitter  fountain 
of  such  all-inclusive  sorrow.  Let  us  consider 
her  plan  of  conquest  and  her  promise  of  ulti- 
mate and  jubilant  victory.  It  will  be  noted  that 
there  are  two  stages  mentioned  in  the  text,  but 
if  the  context  be  taken  into  account  it  will  at 
once  be  seen  that  there  are  three.  The  con- 
text throws  an  illuminating  light  upon  the  text. 
"If  we  say  that  we  have  no  sin  we  deceive  our- 
selves and  the  truth  is  not  in  us,  but  if  we  con- 


78      THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

fess  our  sins  He  is  faithful  and  righteous  to 
forgive  us  our  sins  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all 
unrighteousness."  So  here  we  have  convic- 
tion of  sin,  confession  of  sin,  and  cleansing 
from  sin.  Let  us  approach  these  facts  by  w^ay 
of  the  Cross. 

I.  And  the  first  is  conviction.  This  there 
must  be.  To  deny  it  is  to  hoodwink  ourselves 
and  give  the  falsehood  to  our  Father.  For 
the  language  is  unmistakable.  "  If  we  say  that 
we  have  not  sinned  we  make  Him  a  liar  and 
His  word  is  not  in  us."  Surely,  strong  and  stern 
and  bristling  English!  It  ought  to  make  us 
thoughtful,  exceeding  so.  There  are  two 
classic  passages  in  English  literature  that  re- 
flect the  thought  of  two  of  our  greatest  poets. 
Shakespeare,  in  "  Macbeth,"  introduces  a 
knocking  at  the  gate  just  following  the  murder 
of  Duncan.  It  is  the  middle  of  the  night,  when 
naught  but  wolf  and  desperado  is  abroad. 
The  air  is  sweet  and  wholesome  without,  and 
martlet  and  swallow  are  asleep  under  the  jut- 
ting friezes  of  the  castle.  Duncan  is  in  a  sound 
slumber  after  the  fatigues  of  the  journey.  The 
stillness  all  about  is  oppressive  and  intense. 
Suddenly,  after  the  work  of  extermination, 
there  is  heard  a  sharp  knocking  at  the  gate. 
The  sensation  it  produces  is  indescribably  weird 
and  unearthly.    De  Quincey,  it  will  be  remem- 


THE  RICHES  OF  FORGIVENESS      79 

bered,  makes  it  the  subject  of  one  of  his  most 
famous  essays.  And  his  explanation  is  that  it 
all  depends  upon  reaction.  In  the  murderer 
there  was  raging  a  great  tempest  of  passion,  in 
the  castle  there  was  the  quietness  of  the  deeps. 
Two  worlds  are  represented  in  a  clash.  The 
world  of  everyday  life  is  suddenly  arrested. 
There  is  a  syncope  of  the  usual  course  of 
things.  Another  world  steps  in — a  world  of 
fiendishness  and  murder.  And  so  it  is  that 
when  the  work  of  darkness  is  complete,  then 
the  world  of  darkness  vanishes,  and  the 
poet  makes  us  sensible  of  the  return  of  the 
ordinary  by  a  jerk,  a  blow,  a  shock,  a  reaction 
— a  loud  hammering  at  the  gate.  In  the  sphere 
of  the  spirit  this  is  what  we  call  conviction. 
Canon  Farrar  called  it  literature's  classic  illus- 
tration of  Conviction  of  Sin.  It  is  the  pain 
of  resuscitation  in  a  drowning  man.  It  acts 
as  a  glass  of  water  dashed  into  the  face  of  one 
in  a  swoon.  The  pulses  of  life  are  beginning 
to  beat  normally  again. 

The  other  passage  is  in  Browning.  Pippa  is 
a  little  orphan  girl  working  in  a  silk  factory.  It 
is  New  Year's  Day,  the  only  holiday  in  the 
year.  At  the  first  glimmer  of  dawn  she  awakens 
and  rushes  to  the  window.  She  watches  the 
sun  rise  over  the  hills  till  it  floods  and  over- 
flows the  valley.     St.  Mark's  is  visible  in  the 


80     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

distance,  and  Padua  lies  soft  and  quiet  and  cosy 
in  the  cool  dew  of  the  morning. 

"  To-morrow  I  must  be  Pippa  who  winds  silk 
The  whole  year  round,  to  earn  just  bread  and  milk." 

"  But  to-day  let  me  not  squander  a  wavelet  of 
thee,  not  a  mite  of  my  twelve  hours'  treasure." 
So  down  the  grassy  pathway,  fragrant  with  li- 
lac, she  hurries,  and  up  the  hillside  to  the  castle 
of  Luca,  her  employer.  Under  the  window  of 
the  summerhouse  she  sat  and  began  to  feast 
upon  the  beds  of  geraniums.  How  little  she 
knows  of  the  skeleton  in  Luca's  closet !  Who 
was  Luca?  Luca  was  an  old  man  who  lived 
for  the  piling  up  of  treasure,  until  one  empty 
morning  he  felt  the  need  of  love.  Looking 
hastily  about  to  see  if  he  could  not  buy  it,  he 
found  a  pretty  face  in  Ottima,  who  accepted 
him  for  his  heaps  of  silver.  But  it  was  not 
long  before  each  one  learned  the  shivering 
tragedy  of  it.  Ottima  was  fresh  and  beautiful : 
Luca  was  wrinkled.  Ottima  loved  company: 
Luca  longed  for  quiet.  Ottima  revelled  in  ex- 
travagance :  Luca  was  the  codger  of  economy. 
One  day  Sebald,  her  music  teacher,  gave  Ot- 
tima a  glance  in  parting,  and  straightway  he 
carried  away  with  him  her  heart.  The  sequel  is 
a  many-times-told  tale.  Out  to  the  summer- 
house  the  young  lovers  rushed  this  very  morn- 


THE  RICHES  OF  FORGIVENESS      81 

ing,  just  as  the  deed  was  done.  The  young 
wife  is  steeHng  her  paramour  'gainst  remorse. 

"  Now  he's  dead  I  hate  him  worse. 
I  would  go  back  and  hold  his  two  dead  hands 
And  say,  I  hate  you  worse, 
Luca,  than " 

To  which  Sebald  replies,  "  I  kiss  you  now,  dear 
Ottima.  Will  you  forgive  me  and  be  my 
queen?"  "Crown  me  your  queen,"  says  Ot- 
tima, "  magnificent  in  sin."  But  just  at  this 
moment  Pippa  sitting  outside  the  window,  and 
altogether  unconscious  of  any  one's  being 
within  hearing,  begins  to  sing: 

"  The  year's  at  the  spring 
And  day's  at  the  morn ; 
The  lark's  on  the  wing, 
God's  in  His  heaven, 
All's  right  with  the  world." 

The  simple  note  was  as  the  clap  of  doom.  It  was 
a  bolt  from  the  blue.  The  mask  is  lifted  and 
we  are  once  more  in  a  real  world.  Now  they 
hate  each  other.  To  him  her  grace  was  mys- 
teriously gone.  Her  blank  cheek  hung  listless 
and  her  very  hair  dropped  as  a  dead  web  down 
her  shoulders.  What  does  Browning  mean  by 
this  strange  disturbance  but  conviction  of  sin? 
It  is  as  in  "  Macbeth."    He  is  jerking  us  back 


82     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

to  the  reality  and  normality  of  things,  for  when 
sin  is  realised  as  guilt  then  there  is  conviction. 
This  is  the  mystery  of  the  Cross.  It  is  the 
supreme  shock  of  the  spiritual  world.  It  starts 
anew  the  circulation  of  a  suspended  life.  Con- 
viction is  the  revivifying  of  conscience.  When 
we  stand  before  the  Cross  we  are  struck  with 
the  desperate  villainy  of  our  hearts.  Sin  hath 
done  this.  Yea,  my  sin  hath  done  it.  The 
mirror  reveals  to  us  the  ravages  of  ill-health, 
the  lines  of  time's  unyielding  fingers.  And  the 
Cross  is  a  mirror.  It  brings  home  to  the  con- 
science a  distinct  indictment.  It  is  a  conflict  of 
wills.  In  Melrose  Abbey  there  is  a  window 
called  the  "  Window  of  the  Cross."  And  Cal- 
vary is  a  window  through  which  we  gaze  and 
witness  revealing  lights.  Through  it  we  see 
wounds  as  old  as  humanity  which  need  heal- 
ing, and  "  stains  as  old  as  sin  which  need 
cleansing."  The  great  transaction  thus  stirs 
our  sense  of  guilt.  Sin  at  the  Cross  is  revealed 
as  black  as  the  nether  hell.  The  spectacle  of 
One  who  was  truth,  purity,  beauty,  love,  hum- 
bling Himself  and  becoming  obedient  unto 
death,  provokes  conviction  and  sorrow.  Sin 
thereby  becomes  exceeding  sinful.  We  know 
the  strength  of  the  tide  when  we  begin  to  pull 
against  it,  and  we  realise  the  growing  breach 
of  departure  from  our  early  purity  only  when 


THE  RICHES  OF  FORGIVENESS      83 

we  begin  to  feel  the  might  of  the  current.  The 
Cross  enlightens,  then  convicts.  We  must 
come  to  the  light  for  self-acquaintance.  The 
Cross  is  the  supreme  revelation  of  sin's 
enormity. 

II.  The  next  step  is  confession.  In  the  New 
Testament  there  are  three  kinds  of  confession. 
There  is  confession  of  sin,  confession  of  faults, 
and  confession  of  Christ.  We  confess  our  sins 
to  God,  our  faults  to  one  another,  our  Saviour 
to  the  world.  We  must  confess  our  sins  and 
we  must  confess  our  Saviour,  for  the  man  who 
is  ashamed  of  his  physician  can  hardly  be 
said  to  be  worthy  the  healing.  Of  course,  it 
is  of  the  first  that  the  Apostle  is  thinking  in 
these  words,  "  If  we  confess  our  sins."  Where 
there  is  a  sincere  conviction  there  will  ever 
follow  a  true  confession  and  a  God-directed 
cry  for  pardon.  The  sad  feature  of  the  life 
of  the  age  is  that  we  are  losing  our  sin- 
consciousness,  and  we  are  losing  our  sin-con- 
sciousness because  we  are  losing  our  God- 
consciousness.  Mariners  tell  us  that  the  higher 
we  soar  into  the  blue  above,  the  deeper  we  can 
penetrate  into  the  abyss  below.  The  depth  is 
best  discerned  from  the  height.  And  we  can 
only  see  ourselves  truly  when  we  sit  in  the 
light  in  heavenly  places  and  have  fellowship 
with  Him.    "  If  we  say  that  we  have  fellowship 


84      THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

with  Him  and  walk  in  the  darkness,  we  He." 
When  God-consciousness  goes,  sin-conscious- 
ness will  soon  proceed  to  follow.  For  sin  we 
saw  was  rebellion :  it  is  running  away  from 
home;  it  is  wilfulness;  it  is  a  blow  at  the 
parental  authority.  Confession  is  coming  back 
with  your  guilty  burden  to  the  Father. 
"  Father,  I  have  sinned  and  am  not  worthy 
to  be  called  thy  son :  make  me  a  hired  servant." 
This  is  true  confession.  It  asks  for  the  privi- 
lege of  suffering.  So  it  brings  us  back  to  Cal- 
vary and  to  the  fellowship  of  the  crucified. 

"Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea 
But  that  Thy  blood  was  shed  for  me, 
And  that  Thou  bidst  me  come  to  Thee ; 
Oh,  Lamb  of  God,  I  come." 

Sin  in  itself  does  not,  as  a  rule,  trouble  us 
much  to-day.  It  only  worries  us  when  wedded 
to  its  wages.  Sin,  hand  in  hand  with  suffering, 
becomes  unwelcome,  unlovely.  What  the  aver- 
age criminal  fears  most  to-day  is  the  exposure 
of  his  crime.  The  penalty  he  dreads  is  dis- 
covery. But,  according  to  Scripture,  the  real 
ravage  of  wrong-doing  is  not  without,  but 
within.  "  He  that  sinneth  against  Me  wrong- 
eth  his  own  soul."  It  is  not  the  outward  con- 
sequence that  is  serious,  but  the  inward  scar. 
The  consciousness  of  being  self -condemned  is 


THE  RICHES  OF  FORGIVENESS      85 

the  real  tragedy.  The  guilt  is  in  the  deed,  not 
in  the  fact  that  it  becomes  unveiled.  Nietzsche 
says,  "  I  can  forgive  you  for  all  that  you  have 
done  to  me,  but  how  can  I  forgive  you  for  all 
that  you  have  done  to  yourself?  "  And  this  is 
the  significance  of  confession.  We  confess  our 
unworthiness.  "  I  am  not  worthy  to  be  called 
Thy  son."  The  consciousness  of  failure  and 
of  having  missed  the  mark  is  soul-subduing 
and  humbling,  and  impels  to  the  Father.  Con- 
fession is  simply  accepting  God's  valuation  of 
our  misdeeds.  When  a  man  confesses  to  the 
state  he  puts  himself  in  the  hands  of  the  state, 
and  when  we  acknowledge  our  transgressions 
to  God  we  are  subscribing  and  surrendering  to 
His  judgment.  All  sin,  be  it  noted,  is  against 
God  and  must  be  confessed.  But  if  man  is 
wronged  that,  too,  when  possible  must  be  con- 
fessed. Arthur  Dimmesdale  carried  his  guilty 
secret  with  him  for  seven  long  years.  But  the 
strain  became  unbearable,  and  not  until  he  con- 
fessed his  shame  in  the  public  square  of  the 
old  town  did  he  find  sweet  tranquil  relief.  In 
one  of  Balzac's  stories  a  mother  fathered  her 
babe  on  an  innocent  man,  which  in  the  end 
blighted  his  life.  Confessing  her  guilty  secret 
to  the  bishop,  the  good  man  said,  "  You  must 
go  and  take  the  brand  off  as  publicly  as  you  put 
it  on."    This  is  the  verdict  of  the  New  Testa- 


86     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

ment.  There  can  be  no  forgiveness  till  there 
is  unreserved  and  whole-hearted  confession. 
The  voice  of  the  Apostle  is  clear  and  explicit, 
"  If  we  confess,  He  is  faithful  and  righteous  to 
forgive." 

III.  The  third  step  is  cleansing.  If  we  con- 
fess, He  is  faithful  and  righteous  to  forgive 
and  to  cleanse.  Over  against  our  unrighteous- 
ness is  His  righteousness.  The  world  some- 
times asks,  "  Why  does  not  God  forgive  all 
men  and  put  an  end  to  it  ?  "  Why  all  this  com- 
plexity of  sacrifice  in  the  pages  of  the  old 
economy?  Why  the  passion  and  death  of 
Jesus?  But  the  man  who  talks  thuswise  does 
not  understand  the  cry  of  the  Father  seeking 
His  child.  Of  what  avail  is  forgiveness,  if  the 
one  forgiven  does  not  affect  it?  To  provoke 
the  desire  is  the  difficulty.  Forgiveness  is  not 
possible  until  there  has  first  been  repentance 
and  desire.  The  hardest  task  the  physician 
sometimes  confronts  is  the  creating  of  an  appe- 
tite in  an  impotent  organism.  If  my  little  boy 
tips  a  bottle  of  ink  on  my  writing-desk  some 
day  and  says,  "Oh,  papa,  please  excuse  me; 
I  did  not  mean  to  do  it,"  I  can  at  once  say, 
"  Oh,  never  mind  that,  dear ;  I'll  wipe  it  up." 
Forgiveness  is  thus  a  simple  matter.  But  if  he 
comes  home  from  school  some  afternoon  and 
tells  me  a  deliberate  untruth  and  looks  me  in  the 


THE  RICHES  OF  FORGIVENESS      87 

eye  and  sticks  to  it,  that  is  not  a  simple  matter. 
That  becomes  a  very  serious  matter.  It  sits 
heavily:  it  hurts.  And  my  hurt  is  because  of 
his  danger.  No  water  bubbling  from  the  bowels 
of  any  brook  can  ever  wash  that  uncleanness 
away.  Even  in  its  human  relationship  it  calls 
for  an  atonement.  My  love  must  suffer,  and 
the  deeper  the  love  the  greater  the  suffering. 
A  father's  forgiveness  is  criminal  if  it  deadens 
the  enormity  of  the  crime. 

This  is  the  very  core  of  redemption.  When 
God  forgives,  He  heals.  The  problem  with  our 
Heavenly  Father  is  not  simply  to  forgive,  He 
longs  to  do  that ;  but  the  problem  is  to  forgive 
and  at  the  same  time  to  make  whole.  His  for- 
giveness is  a  self -communication.  "  Who  for- 
giveth  all  thine  iniquities,  who  healeth  all  thy 
diseases."  "If  we  confess  our-  sins.  He  is 
faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins  and  to 
cleanse  us."  And  to  change  the  sinner  so  that 
he  aspires  to  the  purity,  this  is  the  problem. 
To  accept  pardon  is  to  pledge  ourselves  to  the 
pursuit  of  holiness.  Men  theorise  about  the 
Atonement,  but  here  is  the  fact  of  the  Atone- 
ment. "  I  gave  My  life  for  thee."  I  give  my 
life  to  thee.  When  the  prodigal  in  the  parable 
returned  he  was  kissed ;  that  was  the  recon- 
ciliation, that  was  forgiveness.  Then  he  was 
clothed;  that  was  the  imputed  robe.     Then  he 


88     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

was  fied;  that  was  the  strength  to  overcome. 
But  the  first  essential  is  to  receive  the  kiss. 
After  this  will  follow  the  robe  and  the  virtue. 
God  is  not  reconciled  to  us.  Away  with  the 
infamy !  We  are  reconciled  to  Him.  Forgive- 
ness is  simply  restoration  of  the  human  spirit 
to  fellowship  with  the  Father.  The  old  con- 
nection between  the  human  spirit  and  God  had 
been  broken  by  sin.  It  is  now  reestablished. 
"  Our  fellowship  is  with  the  Father  and  with 
His  Son,  Jesus  Christ."  Forgiveness  charges 
the  paralysed  will  with  the  conquering  forces 
of  a  new  life.  The  final  test  of  any  religion 
is  its  power  to  make  men  whole.  Salvation,  in 
the  sense  of  safety,  comes  only  through  salva- 
tion in  the  sense  of  soundness.  Happiness  is 
rooted  in  shallow  soil,  but  holiness  goes  down 
to  deep  foundations,  even  to  bed-rock. 

To-day  we  are  being  told  that  the  doctrine 
of  forgiveness  is  exploded,  that  it  cannot  any 
longer  survive  the  searchings  of  science,  that 
sin  exacts  its  last  farthing.  It  was  Socrates 
who  said,  "  Plato,  perhaps  God  can  forgive 
deliberate  sin,  but  I  don't  see  how  He  can." 
Theosophy,  for  one,  claims  to  have  slain  the 
doctrine.  This,  too,  is  the  message  of  George 
Eliot.  She  makes  poor  Hetty  Sorrel  suffer. 
There  was  no  hope  for  her.  She  must  take  her 
punishment  and  bear  it.     "  You  have  sinned," 


THE  RICHES  OF  FORGIVENESS     89 

this  fatalism  cries,  "  well,  be  it  so :  be  not  a 
coward  begging  for  mercy:  go  and  pay  your 
debt  like  a  man."  But,  alas!  how  are  some 
debts  going  to  be  paid  like  a  man?  How  is  the 
debt  of  murder  to  be  paid  ?  How  is  the  debt  of 
adultery  to  be  paid  ?  When  some  men  hear  the 
invitation,  "  Come  to  the  Cross,"  they  think 
of  that  other  cross  they  have  been  instrumental 
in  making  some  poor  innocent  child  carry,  and 
the  thought  is  a  scourge.  Joseph  Conrad,  in 
one  of  his  books,  tells  the  story  of  an  abandon- 
ment at  sea.  The  master  of  the  vessel  and  all 
the  officers  forsook  the  ship  Patna,  in  mid- 
ocean,  with  her  cargo  of  helpless  pilgrims.  The 
captain  is  condemned  by  the  court.  His  cer- 
tificate is  cancelled.  But  that  is  a  small  matter. 
The  real  punishment  is  inflicted  within.  Go 
where  he  would,  that  abandoned  schooner  swam 
into  vision.  It  tortured  him  by  day,  and  filled 
his  dreams  by  night.  Sometimes  in  the  morn- 
ing a  cold  sweat  of  anguish  would  be  on  his 
brow.  How,  pray,  is  that  debt  going  to  be 
paid? 

Only  in  one  way.  Some  higher  power  must 
pay  it.  The  old  hymn  is  not  such  doggerel  as 
we  thought ;  it  is  the  poetry  of  heaven ;  "  Jesus 
paid  it  all."  The  point  is  not  whether  we  live 
in  a  universe  of  inexorable  law,  but  whether 
there  is  anything  in  the  universe  but  the  law. 


90     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

Forgiveness  is  a  personal  act  and  is  not  amen- 
able to  law.  Of  course,  forgiveness  never 
gives  back  what  we  have  forfeited.  If  a  man 
is  a  forgiven  prodigal,  it  is  as  a  forgiven  prodi- 
gal that  he  will  be  restored.  He  may  live  ever 
after  a  triumphant  life,  but  it  will  be  the  life 
of  one  who,  in  early  days,  had  been  a  rake. 
Some  of  the  losses  and  limitations  he  must 
carry  with  him  to  the  Bar  above.  "  The  souls 
of  believers  are  at  their  death  made  perfect  in 
holiness."  But  let  it  not  be  overlooked  that 
there  are  two  kinds  of  perfection.  There  is  a 
negative  and  a  positive  maturity.  There  is  a 
perfection  that  is  faultless  and  a  perfection 
that  is  blameless.  Is  the  bud  perfect?  Yes, 
as  a  bud,  but  the  perfect  flower  is  a  higher  at- 
tainment. The  content  of  the  chief  of  sinners 
will  be  circumscribed,  but  the  cleansing  will 
be  complete.  It  is  the  eternal  mystery  of  the 
Cross.  It  is  the  crowning  glory  of  the  Cruci- 
fied. He  exchanges  our  blackness  for  His  own 
unsullied  whiteness.  "  Him  who  knew  no  sin 
He  made  to  be  sin  on  our  behalf,  that  we  might 
become  the  righteousness  of  God  in  Him." 


THE  RICHES  OF  EXPERIENCE 


"That  they  might  know  Thee  the  only  true  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent." — John  17:3. 


V 
THE  RICHES  OF  EXPERIENCE 

IT  has  often  been  pointed  out  how  the  Bible 
never  once  attempts  to  prove  the  existence 
of  a  Supreme  Being.  It  postulates  it  at 
the  threshold.  "  In  the  beginning  God."  The 
word  Atheist  is  a  very  simple  word.  It  means 
a  man  who  does  not  believe  in  God.  But  there 
are  few  such  men  to-day.  One  hundred  years 
ago  there  were  numbers  of  educated  men  who 
did  not  hesitate  to  avow  themselves  out-and-out 
unbelievers.  But  to-day  the  list  is  astonish- 
ingly small.  In  fact,  since  Professor  Clifford's 
death  we  do  not  know  a  half-dozen  great 
scholars  who  would  be  willing  to  say  that  the 
"  Great  Companion  is  dead."  Israel  Zangwill 
has  a  little  poem : 

"  The  nymphs  are  gone,  the  fairies  flown, 
The  olden  presence  is  unknown, 
The  ancient  gods  forever  fled, 
The  stars  are  silent  overhead. 
The  music  of  the  spheres  is  still; 
The  night  is  dark,  the  wind  is  chill ; 
The  later  gods  have  followed  Pan ; 
And  man  is  left  alone  with  man." 
93 


94     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

We  do  not  quite  understand  what  Mr.  Zang- 
will  means  in  these  lines,  for  we  could  quote 
several  passages  from  the  works  of  this  fa- 
mous Israelite  to  show  that  he  is  not  by  any 
means  an  atheist.  Then  there  is  Maeterlinck. 
In  his  charming  book,  "  The  Life  of  the  Bee," 
he  spells  God  with  a  little  g,  but  as  before  we 
are  not  just  sure  what  he  means  either,  for 
Mr.  Maeterlinck,  like  Mr.  Zangwill,  judging 
from  the  great  bulk  of  his  work,  can  hardly  be 
classed  an  atheist.  Rub  the  idea  of  God  out 
of  his  writings  and  they  crumble  into  chaotic 
incoherence.  "  Mary  Magdalen  "  is  certainly 
the  work  of  a  reverent  poet  and  a  man  of  deep 
spirituality. 

There  are  indeed  few  atheists  to-day.  Times 
have  changed.  And  Professor  Huxley,  more 
than  any  other  man,  according  to  my  old 
teacher.  Dr.  Patton,  is  responsible  for  the 
change.  He  once  made  the  remark,  it  will  be 
remembered,  that  atheism  was  "  philosoph- 
ically absurd."  He  did  not  mean  by  this 
phrasing  to  avow  himself  a  theist.  He  simply 
drew  our  attention  to  the  impossibility  of  es- 
tablishing a  negative.  For  to  demonstrate  such 
an  absolute  and  sweeping  denial  would  argue 
omniscience.  It  would  presuppose  an  infinite 
knowledge  and  acquaintance.  When  we  reflect 
how   little   we  have   roamed  throughout  this 


THE  RICHES  OF  EXPERIENCE      95 

mighty  Cosmos  and  how  poor  our  powers  of 
observation,  it  is  surely  not  a  wise  poHcy  to 
dogmatise  on  what  is,  or  what  is  not,  in  the 
vast  reahn  of  the  unknown.  Who  can  prove 
that  this  earth  is  the  only  world  in  space  that 
is  inhabited?  Why,  even  to-day  astronomers 
are  divided  as  to  our  neighbour  planet  Mars, 
some  like  Professors  Lowell  and  Schiaparelli 
and  Flammarion  claiming  that  it  is  the  abode 
of  highly  intelligent  beings,  others,  like  the 
great  English  astronomer  Campbell  and  Fizeau 
and  the  noted  Swedish  chemist  Arrhenius,  say- 
ing that  it  is  a  total  waste  of  ice.  The  man 
who  hopes  to  establish  his  creed  of  deistic  de- 
nial must  ransack  every  corner  of  this  infinite 
domain.  He  must  voyage  through  strange,  un- 
explored seas  of  space.  And  this  is  what  Mr. 
Huxley  meant  by  calling  it  "  philosophically 
absurd." 

"  I  believe  in  God."  This  first  article  of  our 
creed  we  hold  in  common  with  the  race,  with 
Jews  and  Mohammedans,  with  Plato  and  Aris- 
totle and  Seneca  and  Epictetus,  with  the  great- 
est scholars  of  every  era  and  of  every  clime. 
The  question  at  issue  to-day  is  not  God  but  the 
knowledge  of  God.  Goldwin  Smith  giving  his 
last  utterance  to  the  world,  not  long  ago,  said, 
that  he  did  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  oppos- 
ing religion  or  rejecting  the  infinite  wisdom, 


96     THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

but  voiced  the  familiar  agnostic  attitude  that 
we  could  not  know  it.  It  was  in  his  judgment 
unknowable.  But  Jesus  Christ  spoke  other- 
wise. He  called  this  wisdom  by  the  endearing 
name  of  Father,  and  He  said  it  could  be  known. 
He  never  said  a  word  about  Mars  and  its 
canals  and  fissures  and  inland  seas.  He  never 
told  us  whether  it  was  instinct  or  extinct.  He 
never  uttered  a  syllable  about  primordial  pro- 
toplasm. He  never  spent  His  time  speculating 
about  the  Universe  and  its  history,  but  on  the 
night  before  His  Crucifixion,  around  the  holy 
table  in  that  solemn  upper  room,  the  saddest 
night  that  ever  darkened  this  sinful  earth,  He 
prayed  that  His  disciples  might  know  God. 
"  That  they  may  know  Thee  the  only  true  God, 
and  Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent." 

We  are  living  in  an  age  of  doubt.  In  the 
olden  time  men  asked  for  signs.  What  they 
demand  to-day  is  proofs.  ''  Prove  these  things 
to  us,"  they  say.  In  Moses'  day  what  the  peo- 
ple wanted  was  a  visible  manifestation  of  God, 
but  to-day  we  are  being  pressed  for  a  logical 
demonstration  of  Him.  But  such  people  forget 
that  the  greatest  things  are  not  always  demon- 
strable. "  Men  do  not  believe  in  immortality," 
says  Martineau,  "  because  they  have  ever 
proven  it,  but  they  are  always  trying  to  prove 
it,  because  they  cannot  help  believing  it."    The 


THE  RICHES  OF  EXPERIENCE      97 

religious  world  was  never  in  such  a  state  of 
upheaval  as  it  is  to-day.  And  not  only  the  re- 
ligious world !  The  economic  world  as  well, 
the  commercial  world,  the  scientific  world,  the 
world  of  society  and  militarism  and  govern- 
ment. The  old  order  changeth.  It  is  in  a 
state  of  flux.  Often  we  hear  it  said  that  we  are 
living  in  a  transition  age,  a  period  of  recon- 
struction, "  the  sick,  foggy  dawn  of  a  new  era." 
The  marriage  law  is  questioned,  the  Sabbath 
day  is  gone  or  fast  going,  the  holiness  of  human 
life  has  lost  its  hold,  the  New  Testament  no 
longer  carries  its  accent  of  authority.  Specula- 
tion is  in  the  air.  Men  are  throwing  away  their 
Bibles  as  children  cast  out  broken  toys.  The 
world  is  losing  its  God-consciousness.  Dogma 
is  an  anachronism.  The  capital  mark  of  cul- 
ture to-day  is  to  speak  in  apology  and  to  live 
on  Doubtful  Street.  And  the  sad  feature  is  the 
baneful  sequel  to  it  all.  The  whole  tone  of 
society  is  admittedly  more  irreverent.  Sacred 
things  are  losing  their  halo.  Divorce  courts  are 
working  sorrowful  havoc.  Suicide  is  becom- 
ing an  alarming  note.  Business  standards  have 
suffered  decline.  There  has,  in  fact,  come  a 
general  all-round  moral  slump.  When  we  are 
told  that  thousands  have  lost  their  religious 
faith,  we  begin  to  wonder  whether  or  no  there 
is  any  causal  connection  between  this  and  the 


98      THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

fact  that  the  courts  of  our  country  granted 
30,000  divorces  last  year.  There  is  at  least  a 
suspicious  concomitance. 

The  question  at  issue,  then,  is  this,  can  we 
know  God?  If  so,  how  may  we  know  Him? 
Let  us  go  out  for  a  little  and  reconnoitre.  Let 
us  survey  the  field,  and  let  us  carry  with  us  an 
eye  vigilant,  and  a  heart  expectant  and  wistful 
and  devout.  For,  if  we  leave  our  hearts  be- 
hind, we  are  neglecting  our  finest  and  most 
effective  equipment.  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in 
heart,  for  they  shall  see  God." 

I.  There  is,  first  of  all,  the  great  Book  of 
Nature,  bound  in  purple  and  gold.  Let  us  con- 
sult this  standard  authority.  Let  us  carefully 
note  her  declarative  testimony.  Crusoe  thought 
himself  alone  until  one  morning,  walking  along 
the  sandy  shore,  he  espied  the  prints  of  a 
human  foot.  And  that  is  a  transfiguring  mo- 
ment in  life  when  tracks  in  nature  attract  the 
eye  that  are  not  the  impressions  of  anything 
human.  Geikie  makes  a  life-study  of  the 
earth's  geological  structure  and  finds  that  its 
varied  features  owe  their  origin  largely  to 
denudation  and  erosion.  Rivers  have  exca- 
vated valleys,  and  the  whole  land  has  been 
sculptured  by  the  action  of  epigene  agents. 
Of  course,  volcanic  action  and  crustal  disturb- 
ance have  done  their  work,  too.     And  so  he 


THE  RICHES  OF  EXPERIENCE      99 

reads  the  marvellous  record  of  land-develop- 
ment as  one  might  read  a  manuscript  of  Guyot's 
or  Dana's.  And  he  goes  on  to  say  that  he  is 
reading  "  the  handwriting  of  some  Infinite 
Penman."  Mr.  Burbank,  for  twenty-five  years, 
has  been  studying  the  pages  of  the  vegetable 
kingdom.  Beginning  many  years  ago  with  the 
dahlia,  he  familiarised  himself  with  the  inci- 
dents in  its  life  history,  its  methods  of  growth, 
its  peculiarities  of  environment,  the  shape  of  its 
leaves,  and  stems,  and  petals.  He  found  it 
single  and  with  an  offensive  odour,  but  by  ob- 
serving, comparing,  selecting,  crossing,  he  at 
last  succeeded  in  overcoming  habits  that  had 
existed  for  thousands  of  generations,  in  fixing 
new  traits,  till  now  he  has  evolved  the  double 
flower  and  with  the  sweet  fragrance  of  the 
magnolia.  And  from  the  dahlia  he  has  gone  on 
till  now  he  takes  all  plant-life  for  his  enchant- 
ing and  bewitching  fairyland.  He  gives  us 
an  apple  sweet  on  one  side  and  sour  on  the 
other.  Mr.  Burbank  tells  us,  too,  that  he  is 
interpreting  the  thought  of  some  "  Wonderful 
Botanist."  "  I  am  opposed,"  he  says,  "  to  the 
theory  of  the  materialists.  I  am  a  sincere  be- 
liever in  a  higher  power  than  man.  All  my 
investigations  have  led  me  away  from  the  idea 
of  a  dead  universe  tossed  about  by  various 
forces,  to  that  of  a  universe  which  is  life,  soul, 


100    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

thought,  or  whatever  name  we  may  choose  to 
call  it."  John  Burroughs  goes  out  for  his  daily 
walk  in  the  dewy  cool  of  the  April  twilight 
and  his  nose  detects  the  most  fugitive  odours, 
his  ear  the  most  furtive  whispers.  He  hears 
the  soft  call  of  the  owl  in  the  cedars  and  the 
whistling  wings  of  the  woodcock  as  it  rushes 
by  in  the  dusk.  He  drinks  in  the  fragrance 
of  the  ferns.  He  listens  to  the  music  of  the 
winds  in  the  groves.  He  notes  the  subtle  signs 
of  the  weather.  He  takes  cognisance  of  the 
sights  and  sounds  and  smells  that  ever  and  anon 
salute  his  sense.  He  reads  the  fine  print  and 
the  footnotes.  He  lingers  long  on  the  obscure 
text  and  the  marginal  references.  He  declares 
he  is  reading  aloud  the  thoughts  which  some 
mind  has  expressed,  and  what  a  fascinating 
story  he  makes  it — a  story  of  order  and  har- 
mony and  beauty  and  colour.  John  Muir  and 
Asa  Gray  sat  around  a  campfire  in  the  heart 
of  the  Sierras,  and  they  talked  about  the  great 
trees  arching  overhead.  They  agreed  that  in 
simple  majesty  the  Sequoia  Wellingtonia  leads 
the  world.  In  the  late  winter  the  flowers  of 
these  mighty  giants  appear  with  their  golden 
dust.  Their  cones  are  very  small,  the  seed  be- 
ing smaller  than  an  elm  seed.  And  yet  they 
climb  three  hundred  feet  into  the  clouds,  the 
bark  alone  being  two  feet  thick.     They  look 


THE  RICHES  OF  EXPERIENCE    101 

not  up  nor  down;  they  look  out.  They  are 
bare  of  Hmb  for  two-thirds  of  their  great  fluted 
trunks.  They  go  on  to  discuss  the  story  of  the 
hfe  of  these  mammoth  creatures.  Muir  exam- 
ined one  stump  that  showed  four  thousand  an- 
nual rings,  when  suddenly  the  Harvard  scientist 
turned  and  said  to  the  Sierra  mountaineer, 
"  John,  some  master  Designer  has  been  linger- 
ing here."  "  I  am  not  an  atheist,"  said  Mr. 
Edison  recently,  "  and  never  said  I  was. 
Those  calling  me  one  have  not  read  my  inter- 
view. No  wise  man  can  be  both  scientist  and 
atheist."  Rudolph  Eucken  is  conceded  by 
many  scholars  to-day  to  be  the  world's  greatest 
living  constructive  thinker,  and  it  is  Eucken 
who,  the  other  day,  affirmed  that  "  Materialism 
is  bankrupt." 

And  so  it  goes.  Bird,  bush,  flower,  river, 
glacier,  sun,  star,  ocean,  mountain,  man — all 
these  works  of  science  are  revelations  penned 
by  the  divine  finger.  It  is  a  great  library  of 
facts.  The  facts  may  be  misread,  but  if  so  the 
fault  is  ours.  Full  oft  theology  has  manipu- 
lated the  facts  to  fit  into  the  theories,  but  so 
much  the  w^orse  for  theology.  Playing  with 
facts  and  playing  with  fire  are  dangerous 
sports.  The  facts  are  constant.  They  always 
tell  the  same  tale.  We  cannot  be  false  to  facts 
and  true  to  Jesus.    Facts  are  the  utterances  of 


102   THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

some  creative  Wisdom.  That  Wisdom  cannot 
say  one  thing  in  palaeontology  and  another 
thing  in  prophecy.  The  God  of  science  and 
the  God  of  Scripture  must  agree.  The  universe 
is  God's  expression.  It  is  His  music,  His 
painting,  His  statuary.  His  utterance.  What 
a  dreadful  world  this  is  when,  as  Comte  says, 
"  God  is  bowed  out  " !  There  are  marks  of 
intelligence  and  order  and  beauty,  but  they  are 
accidental  and  fortuitous  and  mostly  imagi- 
nary. It  becomes  an  unreal  world.  This  is 
what  the  Psalmist  meant  when  he  said,  "  The 
heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God  and  the  firma- 
ment showeth  His  handiwork.  Day  unto  day 
uttereth  speech,  and  night  unto  night  sheweth 
knowledge."  And  then,  coming  down  from  the 
celestial  spaces  to  the  law,  he  adds,  "  The  law 
of  Jehovah  is  perfect,  His  testimony  is  wise. 
His  precepts  are  right.  His  commandment  is 
pure."  Code  and  Cosmos  are  alike.  His 
works  and  His  words  are  at  one.  They  tell  the 
same  story. 

II.  Then  there  is  the  Book  of  Revelation. 
We  know  something  of  man  from  the  works 
of  his  hands,  but  we  know  more  about  him 
from  the  creations  of  his  mind  and  heart.  Paul 
was  a  tent-maker,  but  if  we  knew  nothing  of 
Paul  save  the  tents  he  made,  we  should  not 
possess  anything  very  illuminating.    Hugh  Mil- 


THE  RICHES  OF  EXPERIENCE    103 

ler  was  a  stone-mason,  but  if  the  only  thing 
we  knew  about  Hugh  Miller  was  the  blocks 
he  smoothed  and  polished,  how  little  in  touch 
we  would  be  with  the  man.  Carey  was  a  cob- 
bler, but  if  all  we  knew  about  William  Carey 
was  the  shoes  he  mended,  our  knowledge 
would  certainly  not  be  very  exhaustive.  So 
likewise  of  Bunyan  the  tinker,  and  Epictetus 
the  slave,  and  John  Williams  the  ironmonger 
missionary,  and  many  another  of  the  world's 
choicest  spirits. 

Could  any  one  infer  from  the  "  Sistine 
Madonna "  that  Raphael  had  a  mistress  to 
whom  he  indited  three  sonnets,  and  whose 
portrait  is  in  the  Pitti  Palace  in  Florence? 
Suppose  Leonardo  were  to  be  judged  by  his 
"  Last  Supper,"  would  we  be  likely  to  derive 
that  he  was  indifferent  to  religion,  and  esteemed 
it  "  better  to  be  a  philosopher  or  scientist  than 
a  Christian  "  ?  Could  one  gather  from  Guido 
Reni's  "  Ecce  Homo  "  that  the  artist  was  a  dis- 
sipated man,  and  an  inveterate  gambler  who 
died  in  debt?  If  we  knew  nothing  of  Ben- 
venuto  Cellini  but  his  colossal  bronze  relief 
"  The  Nymph  of  Fontainebleau,"  now  in  the 
Louvre,  what  possible  clue  would  we  have  to 
his  incongruous  character  ?  Man  puts  his  grey 
matter  into  his  work,  but  he  cannot  always  put 
his  moral  stuff  into  it.    John  Burroughs  knows 


104    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

an  "  Infinite  Something,"  but  he  confesses  can- 
didly to  an  ignorance  as  to  its  nature  or  per- 
sonality.   With  William  Watson,  he  says, 

"  Above   the   clouds,  beneath   the   sod, 
The  unknown  God,  the  unknown  God." 

But  can  we  be  said  to  know  any  one  until  we 
know  his  mind  and  heart?  Is  not  "  the  mind 
the  standard  of  the  man  "?  The  heavens  de- 
clare the  glory  of  God,  but  they  tell  us  nothing 
of  His  goodness.  We  know  more  of  Rossetti 
from  the  sonnets  he  wrote  to  his  wife  and 
buried  with  her,  than  from  the  portrait  he 
painted  of  her.  No  astronomer  ever  argued 
the  divine  Fatherhood  from  studying  the  stars, 
"  God  is  love,"  says  the  inspired  Apostle,  but 
only  inspiration  ever  rises  to  that  exalted  and 
constraining  outlook. 

This  was  the  mission  of  Jesus,  to  reveal  the 
Father.  "  This  is  eternal  life,  to  know  Thee  the 
only  true  God."  We  cannot  know  everything 
about  God,  but  how  wide  and  reckless  the  leap 
between  saying  we  can  know  everything  and  we 
cannot  know  anything.  The  human  mind  could 
not  well  worship  a  being  it  had  exhausted. 
Man  may  admire  what  he  comprehends,  but  he 
does  not  worship  it.  Leslie  Stephen,  on  one 
occasion,  contributed  an  article  to  Blackwood's 
Magazine,  and  the  gist  of  the  article  was  a 


THE  RICHES  OF  EXPERIENCE    105 

criticism  as  to  how  Jehovah  could  speak  to 
Adam  and  Noah  and  Abraham  and  Jacob,  and 
Moses  on  the  mountain  top,  and  Elijah  under 
the  juniper  tree.  But  why  should  that  be  such 
an  impassable  difficulty  to  a  philosopher?  If 
Jehovah  created  the  great  itinerant  prophet  of 
Carmel,  it  would  seem  passing  strange  were  He 
helpless  to  hold  converse  with  him.  Lewis 
Carroll  wrote  a  little  book  entitled  "  Alice  in 
Wonderland."  He  was  at  the  time  a  learned 
professor  in  the  University  of  Oxford,  a  higher 
mathematician  who  published  treatises  on  conic 
sections  and  the  calculus,  and  the  world  could 
not  for  long  understand  how  such  mentality 
was  able  to  incarnate  itself  in  a  child.  I  have 
recently  been  reading  David  Starr  Jordan's 
"  Child  Stories  "  to  my  own  children,  and  I, 
too,  wondered  at  the  adaptability  of  the  great 
stern  college  president — and  but  few  of  the 
stories  are  about  fish,  either.  And  is  God  less 
able?  Can  He  not  accommodate  Himself  as 
easily  to  the  content  of  His  little  ones?  Is  the 
Creator  more  helpless  than  the  creature  ?  Has 
He  locked  Himself  out  of  His  own  dwelling? 
Dean  Stanley's  remark  to  Professor  Tyndall  is 
illuminating.  They  had  been  close  friends  all 
through  life.  Meeting  in  Switzerland  one 
summer,  the  Dean  said  to  the  scientist  one 
day,  as  they  gazed  across  the  awful  gorges, 


106    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

"  Tyndall,  don't  you  believe  some  power  made 
all  that?  "  "  Yes,  I  do,"  replied  the  physicist. 
"  And  don't  you  believe  that  a  power  that  could 
make  all  that  would  be  able  to  reveal  Himself 
to  me?  "  "  Surely,"  the  physicist  again  made 
answer.  There  was  silence  for  a  moment. 
"  And  don't  you  think  it  would  be  somewhat 
strange  if  He  could  reveal  Himself  and 
didn't?"  There  is  no  reply  recorded.  But 
the  question  is  a  searching  one.  And  the  more 
one  thinks  about  it  the  more  insistent  and  im- 
perative does  it  become.  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith 
told  us  in  the  symposium  to  which  we  have  al- 
ready referred,  that  the  most  wonderful  thing 
to  him  in  all  this  obscurity  about  us  was  the 
fact  of  conscience.  But  if  there  is  no  mind, 
no  heart,  no  will,  no  love,  no  truth,  no  justice, 
no  mercy  at  the  fountain-head  of  things, 
whence  came  this  marvellous  moral  endow- 
ment? How  comes  it  that  it  has  leaped  un- 
caused into  such  effectual  action ?  "A  power 
not  ourselves  that  makes  for  righteousness." 
But  righteousness  argues  personality.  And  evo- 
lution spells  involution.  The  argument  from 
man's  personality  to  God's  personality  is  well- 
nigh  compelling.  To  state  the  agnostic  atti- 
tude would  seem  to  expose  its  untenableness. 

"  We  know,"  says  the  Apostle  John,  "  that 
the  Son  of  God  is  come."    "  We  know  that  He 


THE  RICHES  OF  EXPERIENCE    107 

was  manifested  to  take  away  our  sins."  "  We 
know  that  He  abideth  in  us  by  the  Spirit  which 
He  hath  given  us."  There  are  but  five  chap- 
ters in  the  first  Epistle  of  John,  and  it  uses  the 
word  know  eight-and-thirty  times.  "  We 
know  that  we  have  passed  out  of  death  into 
life  because  we  love  the  brethren."  "  We 
know  that  whosoever  is  begotten  of  God  sin- 
neth  not."  "  And  we  know  that  the  Son  of 
God  is  come  and  hath  given  us  an  understand- 
ing that  we  know  Him  that  is  true,  and  we  are 
in  Him  that  is  true,  even  in  His  Son  Jesus 
Christ." 

HI.  But,  once  more,  we  have  the  Book  of 
Experience.  Last  summer,  sailing  over  Lake 
Ontario,  it  was  our  privilege  to  listen  to  a 
rather  heated  argument  between  two  passen- 
gers on  the  subject  of  religion.  It  was  not 
necessary  to.  act  the  part  of  an  unworthy  eaves- 
dropper to  catch  the  burden  of  their  talk,  for 
they  were  debating  eagerly  and  loudly.  The 
first  man  belonged  to  that  growing  class  of 
drifting  church  members  one  might  almost  call 
a  religious  agnostic :  the  other  spoke  with  the 
accent  of  conviction.  It  was  in  the  slow 
gathering  of  the  timid  twilight.  We  were 
rounding  Hanlan's  Island,  coming  into  Toronto. 
The  lights  were  burning  high  on  the  head- 
lands, and  off  in  the  distance  the  city  glim- 


108   THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

mered  through  the  evening  curtain.  "  But  I 
have  a  light  within  me,"  the  older  gentleman 
insisted,  "  there's  no  '  think  '  about  it.  I  know. 
I  trust  it  with  as  much  confidence  as  our  pilot 
trusts  that  beacon  yonder.  I  was  a  drunkard 
and  a  profligate  once ;  now  I'm  a  member  of  the 
church.  Once  I  was  a  moral  wreck ;  now  I'm 
on  deck.     Once  I  was  blind;  now  I  see." 

Is  not  this  the  crying  need  of  the  hour? 
Have  we  not  a  right  to  know  and  to  know 
that  we  know?  Faith  is  not  credulity.  Our 
hope  is  not  a  brilliant  and  beautiful  and  shad- 
owy '  perhaps.'  It  is  an  assurance,  a  conviction. 
We  are  in  the  grip  of  a  great  unyielding  cer- 
tainty. It  was  Lord  Macaulay,  was  it  not,  who 
once  remarked  that  he  never  cared  to  attend 
the  religious  service  of  a  preacher  who  believed 
less  than  himself.  "  We  have  '  don't  knows  ' 
enough,"  said  the  old  Scotch  farmer  to  his 
new  minister;  "tell  us,  mon,  what  you  do 
know."  If  we  are  ever  going  to  lift  a  lost 
world  on  to  the  solid  rock  of  truth,  we  must  be 
standing  there  firmly-footed  ourselves.  Mis- 
sions can  only  march  to  the  music  of  "  We 
know."  No  church  that  moves  with  faltering 
step  is  going  to  send  her  sons  out  to  loneliness 
and  peril.  Paul  says,  "  I  know  whom  I  have 
believed."  How  confident  the  tone!  How 
calming!     How  quieting!     In  the  storm,  how 


THE  RICHES  OF  EXPERIENCE    109 

nerving  to  hear  the  captain  of  the  ship  speak 
decisively.  How  it  stablishes  our  trembUng 
timidity !  How  the  vacillating  surmise  drives 
to  panic  and  fear!  How  we  welcome  the 
strong,  positive,  assuring,  commanding,  com- 
forting note!  And  this  note  is  found  only  in 
experience.  No  one  but  a  mother  can  ever  under- 
stand the  sweet  mystery  of  mother  love.  One 
might  read  many  a  treatise  on  the  affections 
and  be  nothing  the  wiser.  The  poorest  washer- 
woman down  the  alley,  with  her  little  brood 
about  her,  is  a  greater  authority  on  that  point 
than  the  most  brilliant  George  Eliot  who  never 
bore  a  child.  The  only  way  to  feel  the  love  a 
mother  feels  is  to  become  a  mother.  It  is  the 
old  way  of  experience.  And  the  only  way  to 
know  God  is  to  experience  Him.  The  Chris- 
tian's faith  is  not  a  doctrine  but  a  man.  His 
Christianity  is  not  a  creed  but  a  person.  How 
remarkable  that  the  great  Apostle  to  the  Gen- 
tiles only  quotes  Jesus  twice!  "I  am  deter- 
mined," he  says,  "  to  know  Christ  " ;  not  His 
parables,  not  His  sermons,  but  the  Man  Him- 
self "  who  loved  me  and  gave  Himself  for  me." 
When  we  read  the  letters  of  Junius,  it  matters 
but  little  to  us  to-day  that  they  were  written 
anonymously;  their  merit  remains  the  same. 
But  we  cannot  possibly  do  with  an  anonymous 
Jesus ;  that  matters  everything.    His  message  is 


110    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

Himself.  His  gift  is  His  own  person.  Renan 
said,  "  Jesus  taught  nothing  but  Himself,  noth- 
ing of  art  or  literature  or  philosophy,"  and  for 
once  Renan  is  orthodox.  "  As  many  as  received 
Him  to  them  gave  He  power  to  become  the 
sons  of  God,  even  to  them  that  believe  on  His 
name." 

It  v^as  my  privilege  recently  to  visit  one 
whose  feet  were  nearing  the  waters.  "  Sit 
down,"  she  whispered.  "  You're  the  minister; 
so  glad  to  see  you.  I've  been  lonely.  My  peo- 
ple live  in  Canada  " — and  after  a  pause — 
"  don't  suppose  I  shall  ever  see  them  again." 
"  Well,  my  dear  woman,"  I  returned,  "  I  have 
a  book  here  with  some  very  cheery  passages 
for  lonely  people,"  and  I  quoted  a  number: 
"  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled :  ye  believe  in 
God,  believe  also  in  Me."  "  Thou  wilt  keep 
him  in  perfect  peace  whose  mind  is  stayed  on 
Thee,  because  he  trusteth  in  Thee."  **  I  will 
not  leave  you  comfortless,  I  will  come  to  you." 
"  Do  you  believe  that?  "  she  said,  looking  up 
with  a  sort  of  half-quizzical,  half-longing 
despair.  "Believe  it?  Why,  I  know  it." 
"  Well,"  and  she  sighed,  "  I  suppose  it  is  my 
own  fault."  Then,  after  a  little,  "  I  was  a 
member  of  the  church  once,  but  the  attach- 
ment was  never  very  close,  and  I  drifted.  I 
began  to  read  some  books  in  college  which  I 


THE  RICHES  OF  EXPERIENCE    111 

suppose  I  should  not  have  read,  but  I  did.  The 
sermons  I  used  to  hear  never  satisfied  me. 
There  was  always  such  a  haze  and  remoteness 
about  it  all.  My  mind  is  mathematical:  it 
craves  certainty.  I  wanted  to  know.  Don't 
you  feel  that  way  sometimes?  Do  you  think 
we  can  know,  really  and  truly  know?  " 

"  Do  you  think  it  fair,"  I  interposed,  "  to  ask 
for  mathematics  in  the  sphere  of  morals?  Is 
there  not  a  difference  between  proof  and  as- 
surance? I  cannot  prove  the  composition  of 
the  sun.  There  are  many  elements  in  it,  such 
as  iron  and  potassium  and  hydrogen,  so  the 
scientists  tell  us.  But  there  is  one  thing  I  do 
know.  For  as  I  sit  here  in  this  window  I  can 
feel  the  sun's  warmth  stealing  into  my  bones. 
I  am  sure  of  that."  We  know  so  little  about 
our  Heavenly  Father.  He  is  the  Infinite  One 
and  we  are  but  children.  But  if  we  feel  His 
love  warming  our  hearts,  is  it  not  a  fact  as  real 
as  anything  the  spectroscope  tells  us  ? 

So  let  us  learn  the  sweet  and  simple  secret. 
The  only  way  to  know  is  to  experience ;  and  the 
only  way  to  experience  is  to  trust.  "  I  know 
whom  I  have  believed."  Mark  the  tenses, 
please;  have  believed:  know.  The  first  step  to 
take  is  to  believe,  to  press  out  on  the  promises. 
"  He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  the  witness 
in  himself."     Proof  is  personal  because  trust 


112   THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

is  personal.  It  is  a  condition  of  heart  emanat- 
ing from  a  relationship  to  a  person.  No  mere 
ideal  can  satisfy  the  deeps  of  our  nature.  This 
comes  only  from  personal  fellowship.  As 
Amiel  says,  "  Only  inspiration  can  impart 
life,"  and  there  can  be  no  inspiration  without 
an  inspirer.  Promises  imply  a  promiser. 
When  once  a  man  realises  that  Christianity  is 
Christ,  then,  and  only  then,  does  vagueness 
vanish.  The  truths  of  arithmetic  must  be 
proven  by  figures,  but  the  truths  about  life 
must  be  verified  by  living.  So  let  us  put  the 
emphasis  on  the  personal  equation.  This  way 
lies  assurance. 

"  I  do  not  know  the  ocean's  song. 
Or  what  the  brooklets  say; 
At  eve  I  sit  and  listen  long, 

I  cannot  learn  their  lay. 
But  as  I  linger  by  the  sea. 
And  that  sweet  song  comes  unto  me, 
It  seems,  my  Lord,  it  sings  of  Thee. 

"  I  do  not  know  why  poppies  grow 

Amid  the  wheat  and  rye ; 
The  lilies  bloom  as  white  as  snow, 

I  cannot  answer  why. 
But  all  the  flowers  of  the  spring, 
The  bees  that  hum,  the  birds  that  sing, 
A  thought  of  Thee  they  seem  to  bring. 

"  I  cannot  tell  why  silvery  Mars 

Moves  through  the  heav'ns  at  night; 


THE  RICHES  OF  EXPERIENCE    113 

I  cannot  reason  why  the  stars 

Adorn  the  vault  with  light. 
But  what  sublimity  I  see, 
Upon  the  mount,  the  hill,  the  lea. 
It  brings,  my  Lord,  a  thought  of  Thee. 

"  I  do  not  know  what  glorious  light 
Makes  this  heart  thus  to  glow, 
And  why  my  spirit  longs  and  cries, 

I  vow  I  do  not  know. 
But  when  my  Saviour  touched  my  sight 
My  slumbering  soul  awoke  in  light, 
And  since  that  day  I've  known  no  night." 

— McGiRT. 


THE  RICHES  OF  POWER 


"  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel  of  Christ." — Ro- 
mans I :  i6. 


VI 
THE  RICHES  OF  POWER 

GEORGE  MATHESON,  in  one  of  those 
prose  poems  of  his,  shows  us  how  the 
precise  idea  of  the  Apostle  in  this  verse 
is  not  always  remarked.  He  is  writing  to  the 
Romans.  Rome,  be  it  remembered,  was  the 
world's  metropolis,  the  centre  of  its  power,  the 
mistress  of  the  seas,  and  with  a  war  record 
unrivalled.  Her  whole  career  had  been  a 
"  March  of  the  Conquerors."  No  one  could 
stand  in  the  centre  of  her  greatness  without  a 
swelling  of  pride.  She  was  the  symbol  of 
strength  and  force.  Muscle  was  manhood, 
might  was  right.  And  Rome's  opposition  to 
the  new  faith  was  because  of  its  seeming  weak- 
ness. It  had  no  belligerent  aspect.  Nothing 
was  so  unpardonable  in  a  Roman's  eyes  as  to 
have  been  vanquished.  They  had  been  a  vic- 
torious people,  and  the  story  of  the  Nazarene 
was  linked  with  a  cross.  That  alone  was 
enough  to  finally  condemn  it.  That  carried 
with  it  an  inglorious  stigma.  It  was  to  them, 
indeed,   a   vulgar  tale— the  tale  of   a   simple 

117 


118    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

peasant  put  to  death  as  a  criminal.  And  the 
very  first  idea  of  the  Apostle  is  to  correct  this 
false  impression.  The  gospel,  he  begins,  is  not 
a  defeat :  it  is  a  dynamic.  It  has  a  Roman 
feature  about  it.  It  has  some  of  the  elements 
you  admire.  It  is  an  energy,  a  power,  an  im- 
pulse. "  It  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salva- 
tion to  every  one  that  believeth." 

And,  surely,  that  word  salvation  must  have 
sounded  not  a  little  astonishing  to  a  militant 
empire.  Had  not  her  whole  advance  been  one 
of  trampling  destruction?  Had  she  not  met 
and  overcome  the  Greek,  the  Carthaginian,  the 
Syrian,  the  Gaul,  the  Samnite,  the  Macedo- 
nian? Aye,  verily,  she  had.  To  crush  every 
rival  had  been  her  proud  aim  and  boast.  And 
what  the  Apostle  labours  to  denote  in  this  let- 
ter is  that  there  is  a  victory  that  fulfils,  which 
is  infinitely  greater  than  the  victory  that  de- 
stroys. Caesar  typifies  the  one.  Christ  repre- 
sents the  other. 

Paul  never  apologised  for  his  faith.  There 
was  nothing  in  it  that  ever  made  him  blush. 
I  am  ready  to  come  to  Rome,  he  begins,  and 
in  the  presence  of  royalty  defend  it.  And  that 
was  a  singularly  courageous  challenge.  For, 
be  it  borne  in  mind,  that,  at  the  time  these 
words  were  written,  the  new  religion  was 
without    standing    or    influence.      No    great 


THE  RICHES  OF  POWER         119 

philosopher  had  spoken  well  of  it.  No  art  or 
literature  had  enshrined  it.  Only  one  historian 
had  even  referred  to  it — Tacitus — and  he 
called  it  a  "  mischievous  superstition."  It  had 
no  commanding  synagogue  to  lend  it  aesthetic 
tone,  no  organised  priesthood,  no  wealth  to 
lure  to  it  the  ambitious  followers  of  fashion. 
Its  disciples  were  altogether  poor  and  unlet- 
tered. It  was  not  an  easy  thing  to  offer  oneself 
to  be  the  champion  of  such  an  inglorious  and 
fruitless  propaganda.  Surely,  nothing  save 
the  vision  of  inspiration  could  anticipate  the 
time  when  the  despised  name  of  Jesus  would 
be  mightier  than  Csesar's.  But  this  was  the 
triumphant  climax  of  the  Apostle's  faith.  And 
the  story  of  how,  a  few  years  later,  he  did 
come  to  the  Imperial  City  is  a  familiar  one. 
We  will  not  pause  to  follow  him  in  this  memo- 
rable voyage.  He  came  in  chains ;  he  entered 
the  city  a  prisoner  in  charge  of  a  centurion. 
He  plead  his  cause.  He  delivered  his  message. 
History  has  already  passed  its  verdict.  Paul's 
opinion  of  Rome  is  on  record.  Rome's  opinion 
of  Paul  is  not  of  overwhelming  or  vital  con- 
cern. 

Well,  about  nineteen  hundred  years  have 
passed  since  these  words  were  spoken.  To-day 
we  occupy  the  vantage  of  the  backward  look. 
For  two  millenniums  the  Evangel  has  been  at 


120   THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

work  out  in  the  thick  of  things.  It  has  been  on 
trial  in  every  stratum  of  life  and  in  every  zone. 
High  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  wise  and  unwise, 
black  and  white,  Greek  and  barbarian  are  all  in 
a  position  to  speak  as  to  its  weaknesses  or  its 
merits.  All  have  the  right  to  their  say.  All 
have  a  voice  in  the  verdict.  Let  us,  for  a 
moment,  this  morning  consider  the  challenge 
of  the  Church  under  the  light  of  these  different 
testimonies,  as  well  as  of  Biblical  scholarship 
and  a  reconstructed  theology.  A  bath  in  the 
fundamentals  will  be,  at  least,  exhilarating. 
"  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  for 
it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every 
one  that  believeth." 

I.  And  to  begin  with,  we  are  not  ashamed  of 
its  Simplicity.  Because  we  consider,  after  all, 
that  the  glory  of  the  Gospel  is  its  simplicity. 
It  is  verily  refreshing  to  study  the  New  Testa- 
ment, packed  full  of  mysteries  as  it  undoubtedly 
is,  and  yet  how  beautifully  simple  is  its  essen- 
tial message,  "  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  and  thou  shalt  be  saved."  This  is  the 
one  ultimate  of  its  revelation.  And  nothing 
could  be  more  elementary.  The  wayfaring 
man,  though  fool,  need  not  lose  the  way.  It  is 
a  sign-post  for  the  child.  No  child  misses  the 
path.  The  child  is  not  a  theologian,  but  it 
knows  the  sweet  secret  of  trust.     And  except 


THE  RICHES  OF  POWER         121 

we  become  as  little  children  we  cannot  pass  into 
the  enchanted  kingdom.  The  way  to  heaven 
is  not  via  Weimar,  but  via  Bethelehem.  When 
Paul  speaks  of  the  simplicity  that  is  in  Christ 
he  means,  of  course,  a  simplicity  toward  Christ. 
It  is  a  simplicity  on  our  part,  a  simplicity  of 
attitude.  "  Receive  with  meekness  the  en- 
grafted word."  And  this  is  faith.  Faith  is  a 
purely  personal  relationship. 

"  Why  should  we  wrestle  with  fears 

And  doubts  which  the  Spirit  must  grieve, 
And  why  should  we  linger  in  sorrow  and  tears 
When  there's  nothing  to  do  but  believe?" 

One  of  the  strongest  evidences  to  the  truth 
of  our  Evangel  would  seem  to  be  that  the  terms 
it  enunciates  and  conditions  are  so  reachable 
to  all.  No  doubt  it  would  have  sounded  very 
pleasing  to  the  apostles  of  culture  had  Paul 
made  the  keynote  of  this  letter  from  which  our 
text  is  taken,  "  We  are  saved  by  learning." 
And  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that,  if  the  Book  of 
Romans  had  been  spun  out  of  the  bowels  of 
human  thinking,  that  would  have  been  its 
proud,  pretentious  argument.  America's  arch 
blasphemer  was  accustomed  to  take  for  the  text 
of  one  of  his  most  popular  lectures  these  words, 
"  There  is  no  darkness  but  ignorance,  there  is 
no  light  but  intelligence."     This  is  the  gospel 


122   THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

of  doubt.  This  is  materialism  at  its  best.  The 
rationalist  has  nothing  finer  or  nobler  to  offer. 
But  how  despairing !  How  unattainable  save  to 
the  few!  We  hear  of  the  exclusiveness  of 
Calvinism.  Why,  the  exclusiveness  of  Calvin- 
ism is  a  little  thing  compared  to  the  exclu- 
siveness of  culture.  Strait  is  the  gate  and 
narrow  is  the  way  that  leadeth  unto  culture  and 
few  there  be  that  find  it.  Salvation  by  faith 
is  the  only  gospel  that  could  have  been 
given  to  the  race  even  on  the  ground  of  an 
impartial  equality.  For  religion  is  the  property 
of  the  heart  not  the  intellect,  and  we  are  all 
alike  there. 

Perhaps  there  is  nothing  which  the  Church 
needs  so  to  learn  to-day  as  how  to  get  back 
to  the  simplicity  that  is  in  Jesus.  Sin  is  never 
simple;  it  is  subtle.  Quite  recently  it  was  our 
privilege  to  listen  to  a  sermon  on  the  "  Psy- 
chological Aspect  of  the  Divine  Fatherhood." 
The  Master  would  not  have  spoken  thuswise, 
"  When  ye  pray,  say  our  Father."  Why  bother 
our  brains  about  the  psychological  aspect  of  it, 
whatever  that  may  be.  Too  apt  are  we  to  clut- 
ter up  the  old  path  with  traditions.  It  has 
been  patched  and  mended,  some  one  says,  with 
cart-loads  of  texts  and  doubtful  debris  like  the 
Slough  of  Despond.  The  common  people 
heard  the  Great  Teacher  gladly.    He  never  ad- 


THE  RICHES  OF  POWER         123 

dressed  them  in  academic  strain.  He  never 
soared  into  the  cloudy  heights  of  philosophy. 
Never  does  he  say,  "  Learn  of  me,  for  I  am 
learned."  His  gospel  is  a  sweet  and  simple 
secret,  if  we  do  not  encrust  it  in  definitions,  or 
dogmatise  it,  or  make  it  hard  and  cold  and 
arid.  It  is  a  gracious  gift,  and  the  most  un- 
lettered, the  most  abandoned,  can  take  the  gift 
and  feel  as  welcome  to  it  as  the  wisest  sage 
or  loftiest  moralist.  Few  and  simple  are  the 
essentials  which  bring  peace  and  pardon  to  the 
seeking  heart.  I  never  feel  the  simplicity  of 
my  faith  so  deeply  as  when  I  sit  at  the  Com- 
munion Table.  Its  sacramental  emblems  are  a 
piece  of  bread  and  a  cup  of  wine.  Could  any- 
thing be  homelierf  Plato  demanded  much  of 
his  pupils.  He  wrote  over  the  door  of  his 
academy,  "  None  but  those  skilled  in  geometry 
can  enter  here."  But  contrariwise  Jesus  said, 
"  Only  little  children  admitted."  Every  un- 
saved man  here  can  have  his  life  illuminated 
and  transformed  by  the  light  of  God  just  now, 
and  just  where  he  is,  by  simply  opening  the 
door  of  his  heart,  childlike,  to  the  Saviour.  No 
need  to  make  a  crusade  to  some  distant  shrine. 
We  are  already  in  the  zone  of  health.  "  The 
word  is  nigh  thee  even  in  thy  mouth  that  is  the 
word  of  faith  which  we  preach,  that  if  thou 
shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the  Lord  Jesus 


124   THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

and  shalt  believe  in  thine  heart  that  God  hath 
raised  him  from  the  dead  thou  shalt  be  saved." 

n.  We  are  not  ashamed  of  its  Mysteries. 
It  has  mysteries,  and  they  are  unfathomable 
and  past  unfolding.  As  Robert  Hall  used  to 
say :  "  There  are  shallows  in  the  Scriptures 
where  the  lambs  may  wade,  and  there  are  deeps 
where  the  elephant  may  swim."  How  came 
sin  into  the  world  ?  We  know  not.  How  did 
the  Saviour  come?  We  are  as  deeply  and  as 
desperately  in  the  dark.  Great  is  the  mystery 
of  iniquity.  Greater  still  the  mystery  of  godli- 
ness. The  Infinite  became  an  Infant.  To-day 
perhaps  more  than  in  any  age  of  the  world's 
history,  there  is  a  tendency  to  place  undue 
regard  on  the  difficulties  presented  by  the  Bible 
mysteries,  and  so,  in  consequence,  to  smile  these 
mysteries  out  of  court.  Because  the  Virgin 
Birth  does  not  align  itself  with  the  order  of 
nature,  it  is  mythologised.  Not  infrequently 
the  miraculous  lends  itself  to  jest  and  amuse- 
ment. Because  the  demonology  of  the  New 
Testament  is  an  essential  part  of  its  account 
of  the  spirit  world,  and  gives  us  a  dualistic  con- 
ception of  the  Universe,  it  is  ridiculed. 

It  is  becoming  popular  nowadays  to  take 
refuge  in  figure,  inasmuch  as  the  atmosphere 
of  the  age  is  supposed  to  be  somewhat  suffo- 
cating to  miracle.     Bring  the  message  up-to- 


THE  RICHES  OF  POWER         125 

date  we  hear  on  every  side,  meaning  thereby 
to  make  it  sensible  and  tangible ;  forgetting  all 
the  while  that  the  very  glory  of  the  message 
is  that  it  is  dateless  and  spiritual  and  insensible 
and  intangible.  But  every  mother  knows  full 
well  how  her  child  can  ask  questions  every  hour 
of  the  day  which  the  wisest  doctor  of  learning 
is  powerless  to  answer,  and,  as  Henry  Drum- 
mond  was  wont  to  remark,  "  I  find  so  many 
more  puzzling  things  outside  the  Bible  than  in 
it."  How  many  molecular  magnets  are  there 
in  a  cubic  inch  of  steel?  Let  Elisha  Gray  tell 
us.  I  turn  to  volume  3,  chapter  IV,  page  25 
of  his  "  Nature  Miracles."  "  Chalk  down  the 
figure  I  on  the  blackboard,"  he  says.  "  Put 
twenty-three  ciphers  after  it."  Can  you  take 
that  in  ?  Is  there  any  arithmetic  in  the  apoca- 
lypse more  bewildering?  There  is  a  star  in 
astronomical  nomenclature  known  as  1830 
Groombridge.  Astronomers  tell  us  it  is  at 
least  2,000,000  times  as  far  away  as  the  sun. 
That  is,  in  rough  numbers,  something  more 
than  186,000,000,000,000  miles.  And  it  is 
moving  at  the  rate  of  about  twenty  million 
miles  every  twenty-four  hours.  Why,  if  Genesis 
had  said  that,  we  would  have  called  it  one  of  the 
"  Mistakes  of  Moses,"  but  Professor  Simon 
Newcomb  says  it  in  his  little  book,  "  Problems 
of  Astronomy,"  and  it  is  silencing.    I  asked  Pro- 


126   THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

fessor  Hale,  of  the  Mount  Wilson  Observa- 
tory, last  winter,  the  greatest  living  authority, 
by  the  way,  on  solar  research,  what  the  tem- 
perature of  the  sun  was.  He  said  the  surface 
temperature  is  about  60,000°  F.,  "  but  the 
heat  within,"  he  went  on,  "  is  so  intense  that 
we  cannot  even  guess  at  it."  And  how  does  it 
sustain  such  an  awful  caloric?  I  innocently  ad- 
vanced.    But  he  smiled. 

No,  the  mysteries  are  not  all  in  the  Bible — 
not  by  any  means.  The  little  ones  are  there; 
the  big  ones  are  not  there.  It  is  almost  amus- 
ing to  note  the  ease  with  which  a  certain  class 
of  critics  can  ride  over  the  rough  places,  the 
boulders  and  canons  and  chasms  of  science — 
with  a  hop-skip-and-jump,  as  it  were — and 
then  trip  and  stumble  on  the  rock  of  Revela- 
tion. Mysteries  do  not  bother  us  in  the  science 
hall.  It  is  only  in  the  Church  that  they  be- 
come so  mountainous  and  disquieting.  There 
are  brain-baffling  mysteries  in  geology,  botany, 
biology,  astronomy,  physiology,  and,  indeed,  in 
every  department  of  natural  science  that  never 
will  be,  never  can  be,  cleared  away,  and  a  the- 
ology without  something  of  the  same  stuff 
would  be  a  somewhat  lonely  science.  Never 
ought  we,  I  repeat,  to  allow  ourselves  to  be 
tossed  into  spiritual  panic  by  the  mysteries  of 
Revelation,  because  the  mysteries  of  nature  are 


THE  RICHES  OF  POWER         127 

so  manifold  more  confusing.  Science  never 
blushes  for  her  inability  to  explain.  Why- 
should  faith?  Mystery  is  the  shell  in  which 
truth  lies  secreted.  "  Here  stands  my  lamp  on 
my  table,"  says  Maurice  Maeterlinck  in  one  of 
his  essays.  "  It  contains  no  mystery ;  it  is  the 
oldest,  the  best  known,  and  the  most  familiar 
object  in  the  house.  I  see  in  it  oil,  a  wick,  a 
glass  chimney ;  and  all  of  this  forms  light.  The 
riddle  begins  only  when  I  ask  myself  what  this 
light  is,  whence  it  comes  when  I  call  it,  where 
it  goes  when  I  extinguish  it.  Then,  suddenly, 
around  this  small  object,  which  I  can  lift,  take 
to  pieces,  and  which  might  have  been  fash- 
ioned by  my  hands,  the  riddle  becomes  un- 
fathomable. Gather  round  my  table  all  the 
men  that  live  upon  this  earth :  not  one  will  be 
able  to  tell  us  what  this  little  flame  is  which 
I  cause  to  take  birth  or  to  die  at  my  pleasure. 
And,  should  one  of  them  venture  upon  one  of 
those  definitions  known  as  scientific,  every  word 
of  the  definition  will  multiply  the  unknown 
and,  on  every  side,  open  unexpected  doors  into 
endless  night.  If  we  know  nothing  of  the  es- 
sence, the  destiny,  the  life  of  the  gleam  of  a 
familiar  light  of  which  all  the  elements  were 
created  by  ourselves,  of  which  the  source,  the 
proximate  causes,  and  the  effects  are  contained 
within  a  china  bowl,  how  can  we  hope  to  pene- 


128   THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

trate  the  mystery  of  a  life  of  which  the  sim- 
plest elements  are  situated  at  millions  of  years, 
at  thousands  of  millions  of  leagues,  from  our 
intelligence  in  time  and  space?"  Haeckel,  in 
the  conclusion  to  his  "  Riddle  of  the  Universe," 
says :  "  We  grant  at  once  that  the  innermost 
character  of  nature  is  just  as  little  understood 
by  us  as  it  was  by  Anaximander  and  Em- 
pedocles,  2,400  years  ago.  We  must  even  con- 
fess that  the  essence  of  substance  becomes 
more  enigmatic  the  deeper  we  probe  into  its 
heart." 

This  is  all  true,  but  let  us  remember,  in  ad- 
dition thereto,  that  we  are  not  called  upon 
to  comprehend  the  mysteries.  We  are  not  ex- 
pected to  grasp  abstruse  enigmas.  "  The  world 
by  wisdom  knew  not  God."  The  world  by  wis- 
dom never  will  know  God.  There  is  an  easier 
and  a  more  artless  way.  I  can  delight  myself 
in  the  rainbow  without  a  knowledge  of  optics. 
I  can  love  the  flowers  without  a  treatise  on 
botany.  I  can  enjoy  the  splendour  of  summer 
without  carrying  about  with  me  a  volume  of 
Ruskin.  "  We  speak  the  wisdom  of  God  in  a 
mystery."  "  How  did  hate  come  into  the 
world?"  is  a  truly  vexing  question,  but  it  is 
not  half  so  important  as  how  to  get  hate  out  of 
my  heart.  I  am  making  no  weak  confession 
when  I  claim  that  Christianity  never  can  be 


THE  RICHES  OF  POWER        129 

explained.  If  it  ever  be  explained,  the  explana- 
tion will  mean  its  collapse.  It  was  born  in 
miracle,  and  it  lives  in  miracle.  Like  nature, 
it  is  manifesting  new  miracles  every  morning. 
For  nothing  is  so  inexplicable  as  the  man  with 
hate  driven  out  of  his  life,  and  love  entering 
in,  to  reign  instead.  It  is  the  searchless  in- 
scrutable mystery  of  godliness. 

III.  I  am  not  ashamed,  thirdly,  of  its  Doc- 
trines. They  are  broad  and  catholic  and  gra- 
cious. There  are  many  doctrines  in  the  scheme 
of  Christianity,  but  there  are  three  that  are 
arterial.  These  are :  the  Fatherhood  of  God, 
the  infinite  value  of  the  human  soul,  and  love 
the  life  of  the  Cosmos.  Our  blessed  Lord,  in 
all  His  teachings,  stood  for  these  fundamentals. 
They  constitute  the  essence  of  His  Evangel. 
The  Fatherhood  of  God  is  the  greatest  truth 
of  religion.  It  is  the  highest  vision  man  has 
of  the  infinite.  And  he  can  never  have  a  higher. 
Because  there  is  no  higher  possible.  It  col- 
ours every  other  truth.  In  its  last  analysis, 
indeed,  it  involves  every  other  truth.  One  can- 
not infer  the  brotherhood  until  he  first  posits 
the  Fatherhood.  So  it  is  a  determining  article. 
It  determines  man's  valuation  in  the  New 
Economy.  If  God  is  my  Father,  then  prayer 
is  most  natural.  Indeed,  if  God  is  my  Father, 
prayer  is  inevitable.    For  it  is  worth  reiterating 


130    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

that  not  a  single  prayer  of  Jesus  is  addressed  to 
God.  They  all  begin  with  Father,  my  Father, 
holy  Father,  righteous  Father.  "  What  man  is 
there  of  you  who,  if  his  son  shall  ask  him  for 
a  loaf,  will  give  him  a  stone?  "  "  His  son! " 
This  is  the  meaning  of  sin.  Sin  does  not 
change  the  Father.  His  love  is  just  the  same. 
It  changes  the  child.  It  takes  the  filial  feeling 
out  of  his  heart.  It  chills  what  in  him  is  af- 
fectional.  It  was  not  the  Father  who  turned 
his  back  on  the  old  homestead :  it  was  the  son. 
Sin  is  the  disowning  of  the  Father.  "  He 
would  not  go  in ;  therefore,  came  his  father  out 
and  entreated  him."  This,  too,  is  what  Jesus 
meant  when  He  said  that  the  soul  of  man  is 
priceless.  He  made  men  feel  that  they  were 
immortal,  because  they  were  children  of  the 
Father.  If  a  coin  is  lost,  some  one  is  the  loser. 
And  souls  are  lost.  They  are  the  Father's  lost 
property.  But  they  may  be  found,  and  they 
will  be  found,  for  Jesus  is  seeking  them.  This 
is  the  meaning  of  conversion.  It  is  a  turning 
homeward.  Home  is  still  in  the  same  old  place, 
and  love  is  at  the  door  awaiting. 

Ah,  too  alert  are  we  for  the  evil,  for  the 
depraved  in  human  nature.  We  are  experts  in 
that  morbid  pathology.  But  it  is  alien,  it  is 
foreign,  it  is  false;  it  was  not  the  strategy  of 
Jesus.     Jesus  was  ever  wistful  and  expectant 


THE  RICHES  OF  POWER        131 

for  the  good.     He  knew  it  was  there  some- 
where.    He  saw  in  every  man  a  repHca  of 
Himself.     We  do  not  mean  by  this  that  man 
is  a  potential  Christ :  we  do  mean  that  he  is  a 
potential   saint.      He  never   saw   "  no  hope  " 
written  on  any  human  countenance.      "  The 
vilest  creature  had  a  sound  spot  somewhere." 
He  recognised  the  royalty  of  humanity  in  the 
disinherited  and  discredited.   In  the  very  worst 
there  throbbed  a  pulse  capable  of  eternal  purity. 
But,  Master,  he  is  dead  in  sin ;  "  he  hath  been 
dead   four  days."     True,  notwithstanding  he 
shall  rise  again.    The  deepest  thing  in  the  heart 
of  man  is  not  sin,  but  God.     Sin  is  a  stain  on 
the  fabric :  it  is  not  inwoven  in  the  loom.    We 
may  be  sepulchres,  but  they  are  sepulchres  full 
of  dead  possibilities,  and  Christ  is  their  resur- 
rection and  their  life.     No  case  is  hopeless; 
no  one  insignificant  in  His  eyes.    And  love  is 
the  life  of  the  whole.     God  is  love.     Not  only 
is  His  nature  love.    His  law  is  love.    His  gov- 
ernment is  love.    His  providence  is  love.     His 
gospel  is  love.     When  Jesus  speaks  of  God, 
it  is  of  the  love  of  God.     When  He  praises 
men,  it  is  because  of  the  love  they  show  to 
each  other  and  to  Him.    When  He  forgives  a 
woman  who  is  a  great  sinner,  it  is  because  she 
loved  much.     Where  do  we  learn  that  God  is 
love?    We  learn  it  in  the  school  of  trust  and 


132    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

obedience,  but  we  learn  it  supremely  and  sig- 
nally at  the  Cross.  This  leads  us  to  the  mys- 
tery of  the  Atonement.  Paul  cared  more  for 
Calvary  than  for  any  other  single  fact  in  the 
life  of  his  Master.  It  was  the  very  centre  and 
soul  of  his  theology.  These  truths  then,  be  it 
repeated,  are  the  vital  essentials  of  the  gospel 
story,  and  they  are  captivating.  They  are  con- 
vincing. They  need  no  learned  apologists. 
Sadly  must  it  be  confessed  that  there  is  to-day, 
in  some  quarters,  an  antipathy  to  the  great  ar- 
ticles of  our  Faith.  But  this  is  largely  because 
of  accretions  and  additions  to  the  simple  struc- 
ture once  delivered  to  the  saints.  Man  has 
been  busy  fashioning  tenets  of  his  own  inven- 
tion, but  these  must  not  be  confounded  with 
the  great  basal  truths  which  Jesus  taught. 
How  few  these  are,  but  how  final !  The  faith 
He  preached  is  strong  and  sweet  and  simple 
and  sublime.  Naught  is  there  in  it  that  offends 
the  conscience.  Even  the  humblest  little  child 
is  greater  than  all  the  worlds.  It  is  beautiful; 
it  is  attractive;  it  is  winsome;  it  is  glorious;  it 
is  catholic;  it  is  compelling. 

IV.  I  am  not  ashamed,  once  more,  of  its 
Record.  For  it  has  a  brilliant  record,  an  unri- 
valled record,  an  inspiring  record.  It  has  been, 
according  to  James  Martineau,  the  regen- 
erator of  the  human  intellect.     It  has  been, 


THE  RICHES  OF  POWER         133 

according  to  Lecky,  the  lever  of  human  life. 
And,  after  all,  this  is  the  important  thing.  It 
is  the  life  that  counts.  It  is,  indeed,  almost 
startling  to  those  who  look  about  them  with 
impartial  eye,  to  note  how  little  of  excellence 
there  is  in  the  world  that  is  not  of  Christian 
parentage.  Liberty  was  born  in  the  Church : 
so  was  brotherhood.  So  were  almost  all  the 
virtues  of  the  New  Testament,  indeed :  to  wit, 
humility  and  gentleness  and  temperance  and 
peaceableness  and  forgiveness  and  self-sacrifice 
and  sympathy  and  tender-heartedness  and  kind- 
ness. Science  was  born  in  the  Church.  Most 
of  the  arts,  if  not  all  of  them,  were  nurtured 
at  the  same  breast.  Emerson's  familiar  say- 
ing, that  the  name  of  Jesus  is  not  so  much 
written  as  ploughed  into  the  field  of  history, 
is  far  from  being  a  figure.  It  is  an  arresting 
and  victorious  fact. 

I  cast  my  eyes  back  along  the  corridors  of 
history.  What  a  list  of  immortals  one  beholds ! 
Here  is  Martin  Luther  poring  over  the  Book 
of  Romans.  There  is  Christopher  Columbus 
making  a  study  of  Paul's  journeyings,  as  each 
morning  on  the  unmapped  ocean  he  patiently 
peered  over  the  prow  of  his  ship  for  some  wel- 
come hint  of  this  Western  shore.  Yonder  is 
David  Livingstone,  sitting  up  all  night  with 
his  father,  and  then  reading  the  Thirty-fourth 


134    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

Psalm  and  holding  family  worship  in  the  morn- 
ing on  the  day  that  he  left  for  wilds  unknown. 
Far  away,  I  see  Father  Damien  at  Calvary 
"  beholding  the  sacrifice  that  kindled  his  own." 
Then  I  follow  the  fortunes  of  Wesley,  of  whom 
Southey  said,  "  John  Wesley  will  exercise  more 
influence  centuries  hence,  and  maybe  millenni- 
ums hence,  than  any  other  man  of  his  age." 
Then  there  is  George  Fox,  who,  according  to 
Professor  Huxley,  gained  his  extraordinary 
influence  by  "  soaring  above  the  clouds  and  tap- 
ping the  fire  of  heaven  at  its  fount."  And 
once  more  I  follow  the  footsteps  of  Florence 
Nightingale  as  she  tiptoes  through  the  wards 
of  the  hospital  in  the  Crimea,  while  the  soldiers, 
as  Longfellow  tells  us,  "  turned  on  their  cots  to 
kiss  her  shadow  as  she  passed."  And  then, 
lastly,  there  is  Michael  Faraday  leaving  a  great 
audience  of  London  scientists  before  whom  he 
had  been  lecturing,  and  slipping  over,  unno- 
ticed, when  the  after-discussion  had  begun,  to 
his  Church  prayer-meeting,  to  renew  his  fel- 
lowship with  God.  And  so  might  we  go  on 
for  hours  to  simply  cite  the  names  of  these 
kings  and  queens  of  service.  I  am  not 
ashamed  of  company  like  that.  It  is  choice 
society. 

Then  there  is  the  Foreign  Mission  advance. 
Few  there  are  to-day  who  are  emboldened  to 


THE  RICHES  OF  POWER         135 

speak  slightingly  of  the  Foreign  Mission  propa- 
ganda. For  even  those,  like  Darwin,  who  seem 
disposed  to  question  the  divine  authority  of 
Jesus,  are  forced  to  confess  that  Christianity 
has  carried  a  cargo  of  blessing  to  every  coun- 
try it  has  visited.  And  it  has  now  landed  on 
every  shore.  There  is  to-day  not  an  island 
where  His  name  has  not  been  sung.  There  is 
not  a  tribe  which  has  not  yielded  to  Him  its 
quota  of  converts.  There  is  not  a  language 
in  which  the  story  of  His  passion  has  not  been 
spoken.  J.  M.  Calvert  tells  us  that,  when  he 
arrived  at  the  Fiji  Islands,  the  first  thing  he  did 
was  to  gather  together  the  bones  that  had  been 
left  over  from  a  cannibal  feast  the  day  before. 
He  preached  the  gospel,  and,  in  less  than 
a  half -century,  these  cannibals  were  sitting 
around  the  lord's  table.  Robert  Moffat  was 
told  that,  if  he  went  to  preach  to  Africanus, 
the  cruel  chief  would  make  a  drinking  cup  out 
of  his  skull  and  use  said  skull  for  a  drumhead. 
But  Moffat  committed  himself  to  God,  and  the 
bloodthirsty  chief  was  transformed  into  a  rul- 
ing elder.  Let  not  facts  like  these  slip  by  un- 
pondered.  They  are  worthy  the  ministry  of 
a  very  alert  and  elate  imagination.  The 
tongue  that  once  tasted  the  blood  of  the  mis- 
sionary to-day  tastes  the  wine  of  the  Holy  Com- 
munion.    One  hundred  and  twenty-five  years 


136    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

ago  there  was  not  a  single  missionary  in  the 
heathen  world.  To-day  there  is  an  army  of 
almost  20,000.  One  hundred  thousand  are 
baptised  every  year.  The  story  reads  like  a 
romance.  There  is  nothing  in  Grimm  or 
La  Fontaine  to  transcend  the  thrill  of  it.  I 
know  not  how  it  is  that  the  sun  creates  the 
summer,  but  it  does.  And  how  Christianity 
makes  society  sweeter  is  passingly  wonderful, 
but  the  facts  are  unmistakable.  Everywhere 
it  goes  there  follows  a  new  civilisation,  a  new 
order,  a  new  tone,  and  a  new  etiquette — finer, 
purer,  happier,  diviner. 

So  we  return  to  the  gate  through  which  we 
entered.  "  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ."  Why  should  I  be?  It  is  altogether 
a  message  of  love  and  joy  and  hope.  I  am 
ashamed  of  ecclesiasticisms.  I  am  ashamed  of 
Pharisaisms  and  ritualisms.  I  am  ashamed 
sometimes  of  our  unworthy  denominational- 
isms.  I  am  ashamed  of  the  wranglings  and 
petty  jealousies  of  the  Church.  I  am  ashamed 
of  the  fact  that  there  are  twelve  phases  of 
Presbyterianism  in  our  land  to-day.  I  am 
ashamed  of  heresy  trials.  "  Three  hundred 
years  ago  two  knights  stood  before  the  Em- 
peror Charles  V,  one  asserting  and  the  other 
denying  the  doctrine  of  the  Virgin  Birth.  The 
emperor  bade   them  decide  the  matter  with 


THE  RICHES  OF  POWER         137 

spears  upon  the  field  of  battle,  which,  in  sooth, 
they  did,  the  unhorsed  one  confessing  his  er- 
ror as  he  lay  throttled  and  bleeding  on  the 
gory  ground."     I  am  ashamed  of  that;  it  is 
preposterous;    it   is   puerile.      I   am   ashamed 
of  the  idea  of  any  Church  court  or  general 
assembly  or  Vatican  attempting  to  decide,  ex- 
cathedra,  or  in  public  gathering,  what  truth 
is.    It  is  unreasonable ;  truth  is  not  found  that 
way.      Majorities    do    not    determine    truth. 
Authority  does  not  discover  it.    I  am  ashamed 
of  the  way  that  poor  Galileo  and  Copernicus 
and   Servetus  were  treated.     I  think  it  was 
shameful.    Every  new  colonisation  in  the  king- 
dom of  truth  has  been  secured  for  us  by  men 
who  were  hunted  as  heretics.     But,  when  the 
Church  sanctioned  these  things,  it  was  because 
she   had    lost   her   Christ.      It   was    not    His 
blessed  gospel  of  love.    It  was  our  poor,  weak, 
false,  human  interpretation  of  it.    The  Church 
has  done  her  full  share  of  persecution.     No 
good   comes    from   denying    facts.      Voltaire, 
speaking  of  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew, 
exclaims,    "  Christianity,    behold    thy    conse- 
quences! "    But  it  would  be  full  as  reasonable 
to  point  to  the  explosives  that  have  caused  the 
wastes  of  war  and  say,  "  Oh,  science,  behold 
thy   consequences!"      AH   these    things   were 
wounds  in  the  hands  and  in  the  side  of  her 


138    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

divine  Lord.     Of  the  gentle  Jesus  Himself  I 
have  never  been  ashamed : 

"  And,  oh,  may  this  my  glory  be, 
That  He  is  not  ashamed  of  me." 


THE  RICHES  OF  TRUST 


"The   days  of   our  years   are  threescore   years  and 
ten." — Psalm  90:  10. 

"  My  times  are  in  Thy  hand."— Psalm  31 :  15. 


VII 
THE  RICHES  OF  TRUST 

WHAT  a  wonderful  thing  is  mathe- 
matics !  When  I  was  in  college,  our 
old  professor  was  wont  to  call  it  the 
"  science  of  the  gods."  He  meant  that  it  is 
the  most  accurate  and  exact  of  all  the  "  knowl- 
edges," as  Bacon  would  say.  One  always 
knows  when  he  is  right,  and  he  usually  knows 
when  he  is  wrong — in  mathematics.  There 
are  no  fag  ends,  no  frayed  edges,  no  re- 
mainders, no  left-overs.  Everything  is  deli- 
cate and  clean-cut.  Mathematics  is  one  of  the 
most  fascinating  and  far-reaching  of  all  the 
sciences.  There  is  hardly  any  province  of  life 
into  which  it  does  not  enter.  One  is  not  far 
afield,  indeed,  in  affirming  that  science  is  built 
on  mathematics.  Nature  has  been  called  a 
"  play  upon  numbers."  Our  God  is  a  God  of 
order,  plan,  punctuality,  harmony.  He  is  a 
master  accountant.  His  columns  always  tally. 
He  telleth  the  statistics  of  the  stars.  He 
weigheth  the  mountains  in  scales.     He  meteth 

out  heaven  with  a  span.    He  numbers  the  very 
141 


142    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

hairs  of  our  heads,  the  beatings  of  our  hearts. 
"  Our  times  are  in  His  hand." 

We  have  come  to  the  gladdest  and  the  sad- 
dest period  of  the  year.  Only  yesterday  we 
were  laughing  around  the  Christmas  holly,  but 
already  the  berries  are  shrivelled  and  shrunken. 
"  The  harvest  is  past,  the  summer  is  ended." 
The  fields  are  bare,  the  glory  of  the  autumn 
foliage  has  departed.  This  is  the  last  day  of 
the  month.  Our  minds  wander  among  the 
ruins  of  buried  memories.  To-night  those  old 
bells  on  Broadway  will  ring  out  the  old  year 
and  ring  in  the  new. 

Good-bye,  old  year !    Thy  death 
Has  taught  me  how  the  moments  fly. 

What  is  my  Hfe  but  borrowed  breath? 
Good-bye,  good-bye! 

And  it  may  not  be  altogether  amiss  if  we  pause 
for  a  little  at  these  words  of  the  Psalmist: 
"  The  days  of  our  years  are  threescore  years 
and  ten."  "  My  times  are  in  Thy  hand."  The 
botanist  tells  us  that  there  is  no  soil  in  which 
a  plant  thrives  so  well  as  that  which  is  formed 
by  the  decay  of  its  own  leaves.  And,  perhaps, 
there  is  nothing  more  helpful  to  the  soul's 
growth  than  meditations  on  one's  own  mor- 
tality. So  let  us  look  at  the  general  features 
of  the  landscape  in  the  soft  light  of  another 


THE  RICHES  OF  TRUST         143 

after-glow.  I  learn  from  the  inspired  Singer 
three  lessons.  Our  days  are  few,  our  days 
are  numbered,  and  our  days  are  in  the  Divine 
keeping.  Let  us  look  at  these  old  truths,  or, 
rather,  let  us  look  into  them,  as  we  say  fare- 
well to  the  old  friend  who  is  leaving  us. 

I.    Our  days  are  few.     It  will  be  observed 
that  the  Psalmist  does  not  say,  "  Our  years 
are  threescore  and  ten."    He  uses  an  odd  ex- 
pression, ''  The  days  of  our  years  ";  his  pur- 
pose being  to  impress  upon  our  hearts  that 
our  time  is  not  a  matter  of  years,  but  of  days. 
The  mariner  does  not  say,   "It  is  so  many 
yards  from  here  to  Liverpool  " ;  he  says  knots. 
The  architect  does  not  figure  the  height  of  his 
building  in  fractions  of  a  furlong;  his  unit  of 
measurement  is  the  foot.     Making  the  stand- 
ard small,  implies  that  the  distance  is  small; 
making  it  great,  argues  that  the  distance  is 
great.    The  astronomer  speaks  of  light  miles. 

As  I  was  sitting  in  my  room  writing  last 
evening,  all  of  a  sudden  the  clock  stopped.  The 
effect  was  startling.  There  was  such  a  cata- 
comb stillness!  Quickly  the  thought  flashed 
that  some  day  this  human  clock  is  going  to 
stop.  The  pendulum  will  cease  swinging.  I 
wonder  when.  I  wonder  where.  That  no  m^in 
knoweth.  One  thing  only  is  certain,  it  cannot 
be  far  away.    Every  breeze  that  moans  through 


144    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

these  pines  across  the  avenue  yonder  whispers 
the  same  sad  truth — not  far  away.  Every- 
thing is  temporal,  passing.  The  fragrance 
dies,  the  flavour  weakens,  the  rocks  crumble.  I 
stood  before  Leonardo's  great  painting  the 
other  day  in  Milan,  and,  alas!  it  is  fading. 
Only  with  difficulty  can  one  define  the  faces. 
But  look  at  the  picture  our  Father  flings  upon 
that  canvas  in  the  West.  In  an  instant,  it  is 
gone ;  a  moment  more  and,  lo !  there  is  another. 
He  can  make  pictures  so  easily  that  He  only 
holds  them  while  the  eye  twinkles.  But,  ah! 
this  visible  man  feels  the  wear  and  weight  of 
the  unpitying  years.  The  eye  gets  dim,  the 
ear  loses  its  acuteness,  the  limbs  forget  their 
firmness,  the  feet  their  fleetness. 

"  A  thousand  summers  kiss  the  leaf, 

Only  one  the  sheaf. 
A  thousand  springs  may  deck  the  tree, 

Only  one  the  leaf, 
Only  one  and  that  one  brief." 

Geoffrey  Chaucer  took  a  fifty-three  years'  lease 
of  a  house  in  Westminster  on  the  very  spot 
where  Henry  the  Seventh's  Chapel  now  stands, 
but  he  lived  in  it  less  than  one  year.  There  is 
most  likely  not  a  child  here  this  morning  who 
will  see  another  century.  When  Tennyson 
went  down  to  the  brook  and  sat  on  the  bank, 
the  thought  that  crowded  him  was  the  staying 


THE  RICHES  OF  TRUST         145 

character  of  the  stream,  "  For  men  may  come 
and  men  may  go,  but  I  go  on  forever."  But 
Tennyson  was  mistaken.  The  brook  is  chang- 
ing every  flash-light.  Nothing  so  inconstant  as 
a  brook !  It  is  an  ever  fickle  fluid.  "  You  can- 
not bathe  twice  in  the  same  river,"  said 
Heraclitus.  The  Hudson  here  is  a  new  Hud- 
son at  every  curve  of  its  course.  I  went  to  San 
Francisco  after  the  earthquake.  I  could  not 
sleep  the  first  night.  The  fear  obsessed  me 
that  any  moment  the  hotel  might  possibly  come 
tumbling  down.  And  we  live  in  an  earthquaky 
world.  Any  day  it,  and  all  the  works  that  are 
therein,  may  be  dissolved.  It  is  said  that  the 
scaffolding  has  never  been  taken  down  from 
Cologne  Cathedral.  No  sooner  was  the  struc- 
ture completed  than  decay  began  its  disor- 
ganising havoc.  And  no  sooner  are  we  well  on 
the  way  than  we  begin  to  waste.  The  Pantheon 
is  two  thousand  years  old,  but  it  is  crumbling. 
Time  moves  in  a  straight  line,  the  philosopher 
remarked,  never  in  a  circle.  Time  is  not  a 
clock.  We  say  that  January  comes  round  to 
January.  Oh,  yes,  the  seasons  do,  but  time 
does  not.  Time  hath  no  New  Year's  day. 
New  Year's  day  is  purely  arbitrary.  It  is  but 
a  starting-point,  a  convenience  for  reckoning. 

"  I  must  work  the  works  of  Him  that  sent 
me  while  it  is  day."     Who  said  that?    'Twas 


146    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

Jesus  who  said  that.  Did  you  observe  the 
urgency?  What  is  it  but  the  creeping  of  the 
twihght  that  He  felt?  Is  it  not  a  wonderful 
thing  that  this  Child  of  the  Eternal  should  have 
felt  the  temporalness  of  things?  His  ear  was 
ever  alert  to  catch  the  message  of  the  fleeting 
hours.  He  feeds  five  thousand  people :  then  He 
says,  "  Gather  up  the  fragments  " ;  solicitous 
for  the  crumbs !  So  in  the  matter  of  time. 
From  everlasting  He  is  God,  and  yet  He  counts 
the  minutes.  My  brother,  there  are  but  twelve 
hours  in  the  day,  and  not  many  days.  Have 
you  awakened  to  that  alarming  reflection? 
When  Daniel  Webster  made  his  last  visit 
to  John  Adams,  the  aged  ex-President  said :  "  I 
am  as  well  as  a  man  of  ninety  could  expect. 
You  see,  I  am  afflicted  with  an  incurable  dis- 
ease— old  age.  My  house  is  getting  very 
shaky,  and,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  the  landlord 
is  not  going  to  make  any  more  repairs." 

This  old  body  is  very  decidedly  a  resultant 
of  the  years.  It  ages.  We  try  hard  to  keep 
it  out  of  the  grave,  but  'tis  uphill  work.  It 
was  never  intended  to  last  more  than  so  long. 
Only  it  is  well  to  remember,  too,  that  age  is 
more  than  a  matter  of  clocks  and  chronoscopes. 
We  call  the  man  of  threescore  and  ten  an 
old  man.  Maybe  he  is.  Maybe  he  is  not.  It 
all  depends.     Some  are  old  at  forty,  and  some 


THE  RICHES  OF  TRUST         147 

are  young  at  seventy.    There  are  other  factors 
in  the  equation  besides  that  of  chronology. 

"  We  live  in  deeds  not  years, 
In  thoughts  not  breaths, 
In  feelings  not  in  figures  on  the  dial ; 
We  should  count  time  by  heart  beats. 
He  lives  most  who  thinks  most, 
Feels  the  noblest, 
Acts  the  best." 

n.  Our  days  are  numbered.  How  full  na- 
ture is  of  the  laws  of  number!  Take  chemis- 
try! A  chemical  compound  is  formed  in  cer- 
tain numerical  proportions.  You  cannot  form 
it  apart  from  these  proportions.  You  cannot 
alter  these  proportions.  If  you  want  hydro- 
chloric acid,  you  will  find  it  imperative  to 
bring  together  one  part  of  hydrogen  and 
thirty-five  and  a  half  of  chlorine.  Thirty-six 
will  not  do.  It  must  be  thirty-five  and  one- 
half.  One  atom  of  mercury  will  unite  with 
two  atoms  of  chlorine  to  form  corrosive  sub- 
limate, but  it  must  be  one  and  it  must  be  two. 
In  the  laboratory  we  learn  that  all  the  elements 
have  their  numerical  equivalents.  Nitrogen  en- 
ters into  union  with  other  bodies  by  the  num- 
ber fourteen,  and  phosphorus  by  the  number 
thirty-one,  and  arsenic  by  seventy-five,  and 
copper  by  sixty-three  and  one-half,  and  silver 
by  one  hundred  and  eight,  and  gold  by  one 


148    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

hundred  and  ninety-six.  These  figures  are  un- 
alterable, inexorable.  A  chemical  compound 
is  an  ironclad  thing.  Tea  and  strychnine  are 
composed  of  the  same  elements,  only  differ- 
ently numbered.  A  slip  in  the  ratio  means 
poison.  Or  instance  the  astronomer.  As- 
tronomy, like  chemistry,  rests  on  the  strictest 
geometry.  Eclipses  and  transits  and  perihelions 
and  tidal  waves  can  be  predicted  and  computed 
with  an  exquisite  nicety  that  puzzles  us  lay- 
men. The  mariner  never  doubts  the  astrono- 
mer. He  believes  in  arithmetic.  He  can  add 
and  subtract  and  multiply  and  divide.  He  may 
not  have  seen  land  for  months,  but,  given  his 
instruments  and  his  nautical  almanac,  and  at 
any  hour  of  the  day  he  can  tell  to  a  span  where 
he  is.  His  quadrants,  chronometers,  and  dead 
reckonings  all  may  fail,  but  the  sun  never  fails. 
The  North  Star  is  reliable. 

And,  were  it  necessary,  we  might  further 
cite  the  laws  of  colour  and  spectrum  analysis. 
It  is  all  a  sporting  with  numbers.  All  colour  is 
resolvable  into  wave-vibrations,  and  they  have 
all  been  ciphered.  The  number  of  waves  nec- 
essary to  produce  the  colour  red  is  39,000  in 
an  inch.  The  number  required  to  produce  yel- 
low is  44,000  in  an  inch.  All  the  waves  in 
the  rainbow  have  been  counted.  Or  glance  at 
the  vegetable  kingdom:  all  parts  of  the  plant 


THE  RICHES  OF  TRUST         149 

are  geometrically  arranged.  Flowers  and 
foliage  do  not  grow  promiscuously.  •  Leaves 
do  not  shoot  out  anywhere  in  wild  lawlessness. 
They  have  a  determined  order,  a  fixed  point 
of  location.  "  Not  a  leaf  varies  from  its  proper 
position  any  more  than  a  planet  from  its  or- 
bit." There  is  no  chance  work  in  botany  or 
forestry.  If  a  flower  has  five  sepals,  it  has  also 
five  petals  of  the  corolla  alternating  with  them, 
and  five,  or  some  multiple  of  five,  in  the  pistils. 
Palms  and  lilies  run  in  threes  or  multiples  of 
three;  ferns  and  mosses  in  twos  and  fours.  No 
moss  is  ever  seen  with  an  odd  number.  This 
it  is  that  Whittier  refers  to  in  "  Snow  Bound  "  : 

"  In    tiny    spherule    traced    with    lines 
Of  nature's  geometric  signs." 

The  framework  of  the  human  body  is  con- 
structed on  the  basis  of  the  number  five.  The 
feathers  in  the  wings  and  tails  of  birds  are 
found  to  be  invariably  the  same — birds  of  the 
same  species.  We  are  told  that  the  hairs  of 
our  head  are  all  numbered.  One  surely  should 
not  find  it  so  impossible  to  credit  this  when  we 
learn  the  accuracy  there  is  in  all  things  else. 
If  the  scales  of  the  fish  are  counted,  why  not 
the  hairs  of  the  head?  If  the  vibrations  in 
the  colour  red  are  counted — 39,000  in  an  inch, 
447,000,000,000,000  in  a  second — why  not  our 


150    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

steps  and  the  number  of  our  days  and  the  or- 
dering of  our  ways?  Is  it  so  very  incredible? 
If  God  is  mathematical  in  nature,  why  may 
He  not  also  be  mathematical  in  human  nature? 

This  is  the  plea  of  the  Psalmist.  "  The  days 
of  our  years  are  threescore  years  and  ten." 
Our  days  are  computed,  our  career  is  mapped, 
our  way  is  ordered.  The  whole  field  has  been 
staked  out  accurately.  We  will  go  to  our  of- 
fices so  many  times.  Some  one  does  the  reck- 
oning. The  sun  rose  this  morning  at  five  min- 
utes after  seven.  It  will  set  at  twenty-four 
minutes  before  five,  and  all  the  dynamos  round 
Gibraltar  cannot  hurry  or  hinder  its  decline. 
We  have  a  modern  invention  called  the  time 
lock.  It  is  seen  in  every  vault  of  safe  deposit. 
When  the  door  is  shut,  and  the  opening  timed 
for  a  certain  hour,  no  combination  can  turn 
the  bolt  and  swing  it  ajar  until  that  hour 
arrives. 

This,  too,  was  the  teaching  of  the  Master. 
If  God  has  given  you  a  certain  work  to  do, 
there  is  no  power  to  harm  you  till  that  work 
is  done.  If  it  is  an  eight  hours'  task,  you  will 
have  eight  hours  in  which  to  finish  it.  This 
is  not  fatalism.  It  is  Fatherhood.  It  is  love. 
If  God  did  not  want  you.  He  would  not  have 
created  you.  There  is  plenty  of  time  to  do 
your  work,  but  none  to  lose.     Plenty  of  light 


THE  RICHES  OF  TRUST         151 

to  see  your  duty,  but  none  to  waste.  "  I  give 
unto  them  eternal  life,  and  they  shall  never 
perish,  neither  shall  any  man  pluck  them  out 
of  My  hand."  So  never  run  away  from  dan- 
ger if  you  are  in  the  line  of  duty.  If  a  man 
is  led  by  God,  he  will  be  led  to  victory.  You 
have  your  day.  Its  morning  and  evening  have 
been  fixed.  Nothing  can  shorten  it.  Nothing 
can  lengthen  it.  It  is  only  wickedness  that  does 
not  live  out  half  its  time.  Never  call  a  good 
life  fragmentary.  You  do  not  know.  There 
is  nothing  premature  about  a  good  man's  death. 
When  we  think  so,  we  forget  that  men  serve 
Him  yonder  as  well  as  here.  It  is  only  the 
sinner's  death  that  is  untimely.  Life  is  not 
measured  by  years.  "  Man  is  immortal  till  his 
work  is  done."  That  was  the  faith  of  Paul  and 
Luther  and  Livingstone  and  all  the  sainted  im- 
mortals. He  who  telleth  the  number  of  the 
stars,  and  calleth  them  all  by  name,  has  assured 
us  that  in  His  book  all  our  members  were  writ- 
ten which  in  continuance  were  fashioned,  when 
as  yet  there  were  none  of  them,  and  that  since 
we  were  born  He  preventeth  our  steps.  "  The 
steps  of  a  good  man  are  ordered  of  the  Lord." 
Have  you  ever  studied  the  divine  fatalism  of 
Jesus  ?  How  nothing  could  harm  Him  till  His 
appointed  time.  '*  They  sought  therefore  to 
take  Him  and  no  man  laid  his  hand  on  Him 


152    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

because  His  hour  was  not  yet  come."  Ah,  me, 
how  vast  is  the  region  of  the  unknown !  Com- 
pared with  what  we  do  not  know,  how  little, 
how  lamentably  little,  is  what  we  know !  Why 
did  we  wake  up  in  the  twentieth  century  rather 
than  the  sixteenth?  Why  here  rather  than 
there?  Why  white  rather  than  black  or 
copper-coloured?  Why  America  rather  than 
Corea?  Is  it  all  chance?  William  Watson 
calls  man  "  the  child  of  a  thousand  chances 
'neath  the  indifferent  sky."  Is  that  your  faith? 
If  it  is,  it  is  a  comfortless  faith.  It  is  heart- 
less, hopeless,  cruel,  sad.  I  do  not  want  it. 
You  are  welcome  to  whatsoever  gladness  it 
may  give.  But  is  it  not  logical?  men  say. 
Fudge!  what  cares  the  heart  for  logic?  Man, 
you  cannot  live  on  logic.  You  need  love. 
"  There's  a  Divinity  that  shapes  our  ends, 
rough-hew  them  how  we  may."  And  that  Di- 
vinity is  my  Father.  And  He  knows.  And 
He  cares.  And  He  plans  everything  for  my 
good.  I  see  a  providence  approaching.  It  is 
due  to-morrow.  It  has  been  travelling  my  way 
from  the  beginning.  I  Vv^ill  meet  it  to-morrow, 
and  my  whole  life  will  be  changed.  It  may  be 
a  face  or  a  picture  or  a  book  or  a  burden  or 
a  death  or  a  birth.  But,  if  I  am  in  the  line 
of  duty,  if  I  run  not  away,  if  I  accept  the 
burden,  some  day  I  shall  be  surprised.     The 


THE  RICHES  OF  TRUST         153 

burden  will  become  a  blessing.  The  weight 
will  be  a  weight  of  glory — an  exceeding  weight 
of  glory.  "  For  our  light  affliction,  which  is 
but  for  a  moment,  worketh  for  us  a  far  more 
exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory;  while 
we  look  not  at  the  things  which  are  seen,  but 
at  the  things  which  are  unseen :  for  the  things 
which  are  seen  are  temporal;  but  the  things 
which  are  unseen  are  eternal." 

HI.  Our  days  are  in  God's  hands.  And 
this  is  not  calling  us  to  put  on  sackcloth,  for, 
if  they  are  in  God's  hands,  they  are  in  good 
hands.  They  surely  could  not  be  in  better 
keeping.  "  It  is  a  fearful  thing  to  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  living  God."  Is  it?  God 
is  love.  Is  it  a  fearful  thing  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  love?  Yes,  as  a  rebel.  But  for  the 
Christian  it  is  a  blessed  experience.  For  the 
Christian  the  fall  is  a  flight,  the  sinking  is  a 
soaring,  the  prostration  is  a  promotion.  It 
means  slipping  into  the  clasp  of  his  Father. 

And,  if  this  be  so,  how  foolish  a  thing  is 
worry!  How  undutiful!  How  distrustful! 
Nothing  has  any  power  against  us.  No  evil 
can  harm  us.  No  plague  can  come  nigh  our 
dwelling.  Some  one  speaks  of  drinking  the 
cup  of  affliction.  Well,  what  if  we  are  called 
upon  to  drink  it?  It  is  only  a  cupful:  even  if 
we  are  made  to  drink  it  all,  it  cannot  hurt  us. 


154    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

Our  Heavenly  Father  will  not  give  any  of  us 
more  than  we  can  bear.  This  is  a  sanitary 
age.  Hardly  can  we  drink  a  glass  of  milk  to- 
day but  the  doctors  are  warning  us  of  the  dan- 
ger. Between  bugs  and  bacteria  we  are  well- 
nigh  afraid  to  eat.  But,  if  "  my  times  are  in 
His  hand,  why  should  I  doubt  or  fear  ?  "  Ac- 
cidents !  There  are  none.  Catastrophes !  The 
word  is  obsolete  in  the  vocabulary  of  faith.  Do 
not  worry.  Do  not  hurry.  Do  not  scamp  your 
work.  Do  not  borrow  trouble.  "  Fret  not 
thyself."  We  are  to  walk  by  faith,  and  faith 
implies  the  gloaming.  God  takes  His  own 
time,  because  all  time  is  His  own.  Jesus  was 
never  in  a  hurry.  In  His  life  there  is  deter- 
mination, but  never  haste.  We  have  not 
passed  this  way  heretofore,  but  He  has,  and 
He  knows  every  turn  in  the  road.  He  know- 
eth  the  end  from  the  beginning.  So  let  us 
trust.  The  step  from  here  to  over  there  we 
all  must  take.  It  is  a  step  into  the  unknown. 
We  are  to  be  on  tiptoe  all  the  while,  always 
expecting  something  beautiful  and  gracious. 
Happy  the  man  who  can  say  with  the  sun- 
dial that  Hazlitt  saw  in  Italy,  "  I  make  rec- 
ord of  only  the  hours  of  sunshine."  Remem- 
ber, if  clear  vision  had  been  better  for  us,  we 
should  have  had  it ;  but  clear  vision  is  not  ours, 
and  so  it  cannot  be  best  for  us.     And,  mean- 


THE  RICHES  OF  TRUST         155 

while,  the  trip  is  fascinatingly  interesting.  The 
night  may  be  dark,  but  the  morning  will  be 
cloudless. 

I  remember  reading  a  story  about  a  man 
called  Billy  Bray,  the  famous  Cornish  miner. 
He  was  quite  a  well-known  character  in  his 
day.  In  his  last  illness,  he  was  taken  down 
to  the  seashore,  and  the  fishermen  used  to  take 
him  out  in  their  boats.  On  one  such  occasion 
a  storm  arose  and  the  sea  was  lashed  into  fury. 
One  of  the  sailors  said  to  him,  "  Mr.  Bray,  are 
you  not  afraid  of  the  storm?"  "Afraid?" 
said  Billy  Bray.  "Why  should  I  be  afraid? 
If  my  Father  has  more  work  for  me  ashore, 
He  will  not  let  me  drown.  If  He  has  nothing 
more  for  me  to  do,  I  should  as  lief  go  to 
heaven  by  sea  as  by  land."  This  is  not  Stoi- 
cism, nor  is  it  Fatalism.  It  is  what  Dr.  Rendel 
Harris  calls,  in  Greek,  "  Ataraxia,"  undisturb- 
edness — the  peace  which  comes  of  Vision. 
Glorious  victory !  What  with  it  can  compare  ? 
When  Christ  is  ours,  all  things  are  ours,  the 
present  is  ours,  the  future  is  ours.  Come  what 
may,  we  are  but  going  home.  So  let  us  learn 
the  secret  of  putting  our  life  where  it  belongs. 
Forget  not  that  you  are  in  His  hands  anyway, 
only  be  not  there  rebelliously.  Be  there  joy- 
fully, cheerfully.  "  Accept  the  universe  "  was 
the  way  Margaret  Fuller  phrased  it.     This  is 


156    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

the  riches  of  trust.  Time  is  Hke  a  rented 
house;  it  belongs  to  the  proprietor.  It  is  not 
ours  to  do  with  as  we  please.  It  is  a  loan. 
"  My  "  time,  but  "  thy  "  hand.  We  are  trus- 
tees. Dr.  Johnson,  on  his  twenty-eighth  birth- 
day, wrote  in  his  diary,  "  To-day  is  my  twenty- 
eighth  birthday;  I  will  try  to  pass  it  so  that  I 
can  think  of  it  without  regret  on  the  day  of 
my  departure."  Frances  Willard  says :  "  We 
have  cast  anchor  just  for  a  little  while  beside 
this  island  of  a  world,  but  we  are  bound  for 
the  continent  of  Immortality,  and  since  the 
ship  must  so  soon  lift  its  anchor,  since  its 
gleaming  sails  beckon  us  now  even  as  a  friend's 
hand  toward  yonder  fair  and  mystical  horizon, 
let  us  take  on  board  a  cargo  which  shall  be 
worth  something  in  the  country  where  we  are 
to  spend  the  longest  time.  Then  fix  your  eyes 
upon  the  fadeless  vision;  for  whosoever  has 
that  hope  or  expectation  in  his  soul  cannot  be 
balked  or  daunted."  Herein,  too,  lies  the  key 
to  growing  old.  Autumn,  some  one  says,  is 
the  romance  of  age.  There  are  no  such  col- 
ours in  spring  as  are  to  be  found  in  autumn. 
In  autumn  we  sight  all  the  shades  of  the  spec- 
trum. What  gold!  What  grandeur!  What 
glory !  Full  oft  we  hear  it  said  that,  as  people 
grow  older,  their  dress  ought  to  become  quieter. 
It  is  not  fitting,  we  think,  for  that  old  lady 


THE  RICHES  OF  TRUST         157 

to  be  decked  in  colours.  Let  her  wear  a  be- 
coming black.  But  not  thus  does  nature  think. 
"  It  is  in  age  that  nature  wears  the  brush  of  a 
Rubens  and  imitates  the  rainbow."  If  we  fade 
as  the  leaf,  we  fade  gorgeously.  Our  last  days 
are  our  brightest  days.  They  are  fuller  of 
glow  and  lustre  and  beauty.  Old  age  should 
be  the  loveliest  season.  The  plumage  of  young 
swans  is  a  black,  ugly,  dingy  colour,  but  as 
they  grow  older  they  become  snow-white. 
Thus,  too,  should  we  draw  near  our  triumph. 
White  is  the  colour  of  the  bride.  "  It  is  the 
sacrament  of  what  is  glad."  It  is  the  symbol 
of  purity  and  victory.  "  He  that  overcometh 
shall  be  clothed  in  white." 

"  He  came  to  my  desk  with  a  quivering  lip, 

The  lesson  was  done ; 
'Dear  teacher,  I  want  a  new  leaf,'  he  said, 

*  I  have  spoiled  this  one.' 
In  place  of  the  leaf  so  stained  and  blotted, 
I  gave  him  a  new  one,  all  unspotted, 

And  into  his  sad  eyes  smiled, 

'  Do  better  now,  my  child.' 

"  I  went  to  the  throne  with  a  sin-stained  soul, 

The  old  year  was  done; 
'Dear  Father,  hast  Thou  a  new  leaf  for  me? 
I  have  spoiled  this  one.' 
He  took  the  old  leaf,  stained  and  blotted. 
And  gave  me  a  new  one,  all  unspotted. 
And  into  my  sad  heart  smiled, 
'  Do  better  now,  my  child.' " 


158    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

"  I  know  not  where  I'm  going, 

But  I  do  know  my  Guide ; 
And  with  childlike  faith  I  give  my  hand 

To  the  Friend  that's  by  my  side ; 
And  the  only  thing  I  ask  of  Him 

As  He  takes  it,  is  hold  it  fast; 
Suffer  me  not  to  lose  my  way. 

But  bring  me  home  at  last." 


THE  RICHES  OF  ENCOUR- 
AGEMENT 


"And  let  us  consider  one  another  to  provoke  unto 
love  and  good  works;  not  forsaking  our  own  assem- 
bling together,  but  exhorting."— Hebrews  10:24. 


VIII 
THE  RICHES  OF  ENCOURAGEMENT 

A  ND  let  us  observe  cautiously  the  setting. 
A%  "  Having  then  such  a  free  access  and 
approach  to  God,  let  us  draw  near  in 
fulness  of  faith.  And  let  us  hold  fast  the 
confession  of  our  hope  so  that  it  be  not  shaken. 
And  let  us  consider  one  another  to  provoke 
unto  love  and  good  works,  not  forsaking  our 
own  assembling  together,  but  exhorting." 

Provocation  is  one  of  those  sinister  words 
that  carry  a  sting.  It  is  usually  used  in  a 
venomous  sense.  What  a  provoking  man  he  is, 
we  say !  What  a  provoking  woman !  She  al- 
ways calls  out  the  bad  that  is  in  me,  stirs  the 
embers  of  my  evil  nature,  irritates  me,  ruffles 
me,  rubs  me  the  wrong  way.  "  I'm  provoked 
at  that  fellow  " — a  gentle  way  of  expressing 
our  resentment,  only  carrying  the  further  idea 
that  there  is  a  legitimate  reason  for  our  ill-will, 
that  he  has  wrought  us  a  wrong  and  sum- 
moned up  our  slumbering  sense  of  justice.  The 
word,  in  its  modern  usage,  bears  this  un- 
friendly meaning. 

161 


162    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

And  the  Greek  original  in  the  passage  before 
us  is  essentially  strong — paroxysmos,  our  word 
paroxysm,  to  sharpen — a  weapon  with  a 
pointed,  painful  edge.  It  is  used  on  three  other 
occasions  in  the  New  Testament.  When  the 
great  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles  went  to  Athens, 
we  are  told  that  "  His  spirit  was  cut  within 
him  as  he  beheld  the  city  full  of  idols."  When 
a  misunderstanding  unfortunately  arose  be- 
tween himself  and  Barnabas,  it  is  called  a 
"  sharp  contention  " — the  same  word  being 
swept  into  service.  And,  in  the  immortal  love 
lyric  to  the  Corinthians,  we  read  that  "  love  is 
not  provoked."  This  is  the  thought  to  which 
the  word  is,  for  the  most  part,  attached  in  the 
sacred  writings.  It  has  a  defiant  aspect.  But, 
in  the  verse  before  us,  this  aspect  is  removed 
as  a  mask.  It  beams  down  upon  us  with 
kindly  regard.  It  comes  with  healing,  not  hurt, 
in  its  wings ;  with  balm,  not  scourge  and  bleed- 
ing. We  are  not  to  incite  to  paroxysms  of  fear 
or  passion.  We  are  to  affect  each  other  acutely 
to  love  and  good  works,  and  to  the  joys  and 
privileges  of  public  worship. 

How  unfortunate  that  so  many  of  our  Eng- 
lish derivatives  have  lost  the  fresh  innocence 
of  childhood!  Instance  our  word  charity.  It 
was  at  first  a  visitor  most  welcome — open,  sin- 
cere, artless,  friendly,  gladsome.     Much  that 


RICHES  OF  ENCOURAGEMENT    163 

we  mean  by  love  the  Apostles  meant  by  charity. 
To-day,  however,  the  root  has  been  beggared 
of  its  wealthy  content  and  it  has  fallen  from 
its  envied  pedestal.  It  has  become  well-nigh 
a  verbal  ruin.  We  tolerate  it — that  is  all.  We 
do  not  greet  it  gladly.  It  carries  with  it  a 
disparaging  intention.  It  denotes  mainly  the 
giving  of  alms.  "  Cold  as  charity,"  do  we  not 
say  ?  Thuswise,  also,  is  it  with  this  word  pro- 
voke. It  means  literally  to  call  forth.  But 
how  much  more  beautiful  to  call  forth  the  good 
rather  than  the  bad,  the  bright  rather  than  the 
dark,  the  noble  rather  than  the  selfish  and 
malign.  Chaucer  says,  "  Christianity  provokes 
a  man's  better  nature."  Cowper  says,  "  The 
sight  provokes  a  smile."  Gray,  in  his  "  Elegy," 
asks,  "  Can  honour's  voice  provoke  the  silent 
dust?  "  And  Paul  adds,  "  Provoking  one  an- 
other to  love  and  good  works  and  the  exhorta- 
tion and  inspiration  of  public  communion." 
Let  us,  then,  glance  for  a  moment  at  this 
lofty  plane  to  which  the  Apostle  beckons  us. 

I.  Provoking  to  love.  There  are  two  words 
for  love  in  the  New  Testament;  the  one  used 
here  like  the  word  for  provoke  being  the  strong 
word.  It  is  a  word  born  within  the  bosom  of 
revealed  religion.  There  is  no  instance  of  its 
use  in  any  heathen  writer.  It  is  more  than  su- 
perficial or  sentimental;  it  is  radical.     It  is  a 


164    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

searching  word.  It  reaches  down  to  the  roots 
of  character.  It  is  the  word  outlined  by  the 
Apostle  in  his  matchless  ode  in  First  Corinthi- 
ans, "  Love  is  not  provoked."  There  is  a  love 
which  is  provoked  sometimes,  but  'tis  not  this 
love.  This  love  is  above  provocation.  It  is 
not  simply  an  effeminate  amiableness;  it  is  a 
strong  masculine  crusade.    It  is  God-like. 

And  we  are  to  motive  men  towards  this  ex- 
alted and  tranquil  and  long-suffering  ideal.  It 
is  the  call  of  the  Christ.  It  was  His  modus 
operandi.  The  miner  goes  out  in  search  of  hid 
treasure.  It  is  gold,  not  dross,  that  he  seeks. 
Sometimes  what  looks  the  most  unpromising 
yields  the  richest  percentage.  And  there  is 
wealth  in  the  poorest-looking  human  stuff.  The 
mission  of  Jesus  was  to  mine  it.  He  came  to 
seek  and  to  save  what  in  us  is  lost,  to  lift  into 
evidence  the  worth  and  the  wealth  that  are  hid- 
den in  the  soul. 

"  In  men  whom  men  condemn  as  ill 
I  find  so  much  of  goodness  still, 
In  men  whom  men  pronounce  divine 
I  find  so  much  of  sin  and  blot, 
I  hesitate  to  draw  the  line 
Between  the  two,  when  God  has  not." 

The  Master  knew  what  was  in  man,  and  so 
He  believed  in  him.  The  only  sure  way,  after 
all,  of  saving  is  the  old,  tried,  and  proven  way 


RICHES  OF  ENCOURAGEMENT   165 

of  trusting  and  loving.  Trust  disarms  hostil- 
ity. Contempt  of  humanity  was  the  arch-sin 
to  Jesus.  When  Jesus  wanted  an  illustration 
of  iniquity  in  its  scarlet  distinctness,  He  did 
not  go,  as  we  usually  do,  to  the  saloon  or  the 
slum  or  the  tenderloin.  He  went  to  the  home 
of  the  Pharisee.  To  Him  respectable  sin  was 
the  great  sin — pride,  selfishness,  hate,  hard- 
heartedness,  jealousy,  malice,  hypocrisy,  unbe- 
lief, suspicion.  "  Hath  no  man  condemned 
thee  ?  No  man.  Lord.  Neither  do  I  condemn 
thee:  go  and  sin  no  more."  Livingstone  went 
unarmed  through  Africa,  and  was  only  once 
assailed.  Stanley  went,  primed  and  panoplied, 
and  he  had  to  blaze  his  way  and  mark  it  by 
little  brooklets  of  blood.  Treat  men  as  thieves 
and  they  will  steal;  treat  them  as  wolves  and 
they  will  tear ;  treat  them  as  dogs  and  they  will 
bite.  But  treat  them  as  children  of  the  Father 
and  they  will  respond  splendidly  to  the  lifting 
appeal.  Because,  at  bottom,  the  soul  of  man  is 
sound.  The  deepest  thing  in  the  heart  is  its 
essential  goodness.  Men  are  not  intrinsically 
base.  They  are  inherently  true  and  noble.  The 
innermost  reality  is  God,  not  sin.  Never  let 
your  child  see  that  you  doubt  his  honour.  It 
will  paralyse  his  virtue.  Mrs.  Booth  says  that, 
when  she  goes  to  a  criminal,  she  always  ap- 
peals to  his  future,  not  his  past.     There  is  an 


166    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

old  French  proverb  which  says  that  he  who 
would  labour  for  his  fellowmen  must  see  as 
little  as  possible  of  them.  This  was  not  the 
estimate  of  Tennyson  when  he  wrote,  "  Utter 
knowledge  is  utter  love."  Jesus  did  not  doubt 
Mary  Magdalene.  He  never  despaired  of  any 
child.  His  gracious  procedure  was  by  way  of 
encouragement. 

*'  Fathers,  provoke  not  your  children  to 
wrath,  but  nurture  them."  "  Nourish  them." 
It  is  the  tender  plant  that  needs  nurturing.  It 
denotes  a  fostering  solicitude.  The  word  has 
a  warm,  gentle,  healing  touch.  Husbands,  love 
your  wives,  for  "  no  man  ever  hated  his  own 
flesh,  but  nurtureth  and  cherisheth  it."  It  is  a 
home  word,  and  love  is  the  law  of  the  home. 
The  raw,  chill  atmosphere  of  fault-finding  is 
fatal  in  the  home.  Elsewhere  we  read,  "  Fa- 
thers, provoke  not  your  children  to  wrath  that 
they  be  not  discouraged."  To  discourage  is  to 
harden,  to  solidify,  to  seal  up,  to  check,  to  si- 
lence, to  crush,  to  destroy.  To  nurture  is  to 
train,  to  lead  out,  to  educate,  to  cause  to  flow 
in  warm,  evoking  life-giving  virtue.  In  min- 
ing, quicksilver  is  utilised  to  separate  the  pre- 
cious metal  from  the  ore.  The  mercury  runs 
about,  lays  hold  of  what  is  valuable,  and  ex- 
tracts it.  Then,  with  the  application  of  heat, 
its  grip  is  loosened  and  the  bullion  is  detached. 


RICHES  OF  ENCOURAGEMENT   167 

We,  too,  should  be  balls  of  mercury,  ever  on 
the  alert  for  what  is  priceless  and  superlative  in 
the  heart  of  man. 

"  Down  in  the  human  heart, 
Crushed  by  the  tempter, 
Feelings  lie  buried 
That  grace  can  restore. 
Touched  by  a  loving  hand. 
Wakened  by  kindness, 
Chords  that  are  broken 
Will  vibrate  once  more." 

Oh,  the  world  of  needless  wretchedness! 
How  we  provoke  to  anger!  How  much  pain 
about  us  is  preventable !  How  we  pour  in 
vinegar  and  nitre  into  the  wound  to  hurt  and 
irritate  and  inflame!  The  sour  look,  the  un- 
gracious speech,  the  harrowing  tale,  the  keen, 
cutting  criticism,  the  inhumanity,  the  husband 
nagging  the  wife,  the  wife  taunting  the  hus- 
band, the  thoughtless  unkindness,  the  lack  of 
appreciation — this  makes  the  woeful  world  that 
need  not  be,  that  should  not  be.  In  a  landscape 
the  objects  are  always  the  same.  But  how  dif- 
ferently it  responds  under  cold  and  cloud  and 
rain  from  what  it  does  when  the  sun  is  soften- 
ing all  its  features  with  a  mellow  splendour! 
Men  there  are  who  are  down  on  the  New  Testa- 
ment because  of  its  gentleness.  They  deal  in 
blood  and  iron  and  granite.  But  Jesus  pitched 
His  life  upon  the  key  of  kindness.     For  Him 


168    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

to  live  was  to  love  and  to  pour  oil  on  the  tem- 
pestuous waters.  In  one  of  his  essays,  Mr. 
Arthur  C.  Benson  tells  of  a  serious  illness  he 
once  had.  He  had  a  fall  from  a  tree,  and  for 
two  weeks  his  life  hovered  doubtfully  round 
the  border-line.  In  fact,  he  was  given  the  sac- 
raments of  the  Church.  When  convalescing, 
he  began  to  jot  down  the  thoughts  that  pos- 
sessed him  during  that  critical  juncture.  "  I 
cared  not,"  he  says,  "  for  my  personal  suc- 
cesses, nothing  for  what  little  position  I  had 
gained,  nothing  for  the  books  I  had  written. 
What  alone  concerned  me  was  the  thought  that 
I  had  helped  some  poor  pilgrim  and  made  his 
way  easier  and  straighter  and  smoother." 

II.  Provoking,  secondly,  to  good  works. 
Beautiful  works,  rather!  To  hearten  is  to  put 
heart  into.  And  this  is  our  calling.  We  are 
to  urge  each  other  to  the  doing  of  beautiful 
things.  We  are  to  adorn  the  doctrine  of  God 
our  Saviour  in  all  things.  We  are  to  lure  to 
the  levels  of  ornamental  living. 

And  the  method  suggested  is  by  way  of  en- 
couragement. How  much  failure  to-day  is  due 
to  simple  loss  of  courage !  How  many  give 
up  through  sheer  dispiritedness!  It  is  not  sin 
that  kills ;  it  is  despair.  Almost  any  lapse  can 
be  recovered,  if  there  be  only  heart  and  hope 
and  will-power  left.     John  Bunyan  makes  the 


RICHES  OF  ENCOURAGEMENT    169 

pilgrim  meet  every  conceivable  obstacle  in  his 
journey  to  the  City  Celestial,  but  the  difficulty 
most  intimidating  was  Giant  Despair.  When 
Pilgrim  met  this  Goliath  he  thought  very  seri- 
ously of  retracing  his  steps.  And  this  most 
surely  he  would  have  done  had  he  not  discov- 
ered a  little  key  in  his  bosom,  called  Hope. 
When  hope  is  gone,  all  is  gone.  When  hope 
fades,  the  vision  is  lost.  This  it  is  that  is  the 
meaning  of  our  present-day  suicide  epidemic. 
**  No  use  trying,"  the  felo-de-se  says.  But  how 
foolish!  How  wickedly  false!  Man,  cast 
down  into  the  depths  and  crushed,  there  is 
every  use  trying.  "  Why  art  thou  cast  down, 
oh  my  soul,  and  why  art  thou  disquieted  within 
thee?  "  "  Out  of  the  depths  have  I  cried  unto 
thee,  oh  Jehovah.  Oh  Israel,  hope  in  Jehovah ! 
For  with  Him  is  plenteous  redemption  and  in 
Him  is  everlasting  strength." 

The  world  to-day  is  pining  for  encourage- 
ment. It  is  a  tonic  the  heart  of  man  loves.  Sir 
Walter  Scott  was  shy  and  diffident  as  a  lad.  It 
was  said  at  school  that  he  was  even  stupid. 
But  the  day  the  boy  met  Burns  was  his  birth- 
day. Burns  read  some  lines  he  wrote,  then, 
patting  him  on  the  head,  said,  "  You'll  be  a 
man  yet,  ma  laddie."  Little  Walter,  we  are 
told,  went  home  and  wept  for  joy.  What  now 
could  daunt  him  ?    Had  not  the  idol  of  his  day 


170    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

regarded  him?  When  Byron's  mother  called 
her  boy  a  "  lame  brat,"  she  was  endowing  him 
with  a  heritage  of  hate.  "  Your  mother  is  a 
fool,"  said  a  playmate  to  the  limping  lad  one 
day.  "  I  know  it,"  replied  the  future  poet,  and 
burst  into  tears.  Schopenhauer's  mother  was 
jealous  of  him  and  hated  him  cordially.  These 
would  be  coarse,  rough  treatments  in  the  train- 
ing of  a  colt.  How  infinitely  more  so  in  the 
culture  of  a  soul.  The  more  delicate  the  ad- 
justment, the  more  easily  damaged.  It  is  be- 
cause the  equilibrium  of  the  collodion  is  un- 
stable that  the  photographer  makes  his  nega- 
tive. And  some  have  natures  so  mobile  and 
impressible  that  often  a  mere  handshake  will 
change  their  whole  lives,  just  as  a  current 
of  hydrogen  gas  passing  over  a  piece 
of  polished  platinum  will  take  fire,  or  the 
touch  of  a  feather  cause  the  iodide  of  nitro- 
gen to  explode.  Wonderful,  indeed,  are  the 
transformations  in  the  laboratory  of  the  chem- 
ist, but  they  are  as  nothing  to  those  in  the 
laboratory  of  the  soul.  It  was  Benjamin  West, 
was  it  not,  who  said,  "  A  kiss  from  my  mother 
made  me  a  painter."  Have  you  ever  seen  a 
radiometer?  It  is  an  instrument  for  measur- 
ing radiant  energy.  It  consists  of  a  number 
of  light  discs  blackened  on  one  side  and  placed 
in  an  exhausted  glass  vessel.    And  it  is  so  sensi- 


RICHES  OF  ENCOURAGEMENT   171 

tive  to  light  that,  when  even  a  match  is  struck 
in  the  room  where  it  is  placed,  the  arms  begin 
to  rotate.  Even  so  a  look  sometimes,  espe- 
cially if  it  be  a  look  of  love,  a  thought,  a  mem- 
ory of  home  and  mother,  a  prayer  for  one  far 
distant,  will  not  infrequently  turn  the  foot- 
steps into  the  paths  of  righteousness. 

Here  is  a  mother  I  have  known  with  her 
child.  She  says,  in  the  morning,  "  Now,  my 
dear,  we  will  go  for  a  ride  to-day."  At  the 
appointed  hour  the  child  is  got  ready  and  the 
automobile  drives  to  the  door.  But,  just  as 
they  are  about  to  enter,  she  changes  her  mind 
and  her  plans,  and  the  outing  is  postponed. 
Next  week,  something  of  a  similar  nature  is 
undergone.  It  is  a  more  or  less  occasional  ex- 
perience. She  is  educating  her  child,  she  says, 
in  the  school  of  disappointment.  Some  one 
asks  her,  ''  My  dear  woman,  why  this  strange 
curriculum  ?  "  She  answers,  "  The  world  is 
full  of  hopes  not  realised,  and  I  am  training  my 
child  to  be  ready  for  them."  But  is  not  that 
a  very  astonishing  discipline  ?  Think  you  it  is 
needful  or  helpful  or  wise?  Are  not  men  and 
women — aye,  and  children,  too — hungering 
rather  for  a  little  partnership  of  cheer?  How 
many  are  tugging  at  the  load  and  every  now 
and  then  looking  timidly  to  the  grade.  How 
a  whisper  of  hope  would  hearten  them!     I 


172    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

have  seen  the  farmer  driving  his  team  up  the 
steep  indine  and  stopping  every  Httle  while  to 
give  the  tired,  faithful  animals  a  breathing 
space.  And  I  have  seen  him  take  a  lump  of 
sugar  and  patting  them  on  the  back,  with  en- 
dearing words,  give  it  to  the  noble  creatures. 
And,  then,  I  have  watched  the  slow,  heavy  pull 
resumed.  It  was  a  wondrous  reinforcement. 
A  morsel  of  sweetness  did  what  a  stick  or  a 
scourge  could  never  have  done.  The  story 
that  Dale  of  Birmingham  tells  is  illuminating. 
He  was  walking  down  the  street  one  blue 
Monday  morning  in  a  faint,  forbidding  mood. 
A  poor  old  woman,  as  she  passed  him,  turned 
and  spoke,  "  Good-morning,  Dr.  Dale;  God 
bless  you."  He  looked  up  and  inquired  her 
name,  but  she  was  gone.  And  it  will  be  re- 
membered that  the  great  preacher  goes  on  to 
tell  how  the  clouds  began  to  roll  away,  not 
because  one  of  the  great  of  earth  had  noticed 
him,  but  because  one  of  the  humble  toilers  had 
given  him  a  cup  of  cold  water  and  filled  his 
heart  with  freshness  and  joy. 

Woman,  what  is  your  attitude  toward  your 
domestics?  Are  you  slipping  hope  into  their 
lives?  Did  you  ever  watch  the  embers  of  a 
dying  fire?  Did  you  put  some  fresh  kindling 
on?  And  did  you  then  try  to  blow  it  into 
warm  and  welcome  flame?     Can  you  not  do 


RICHES  OF  ENCOURAGEMENT   173 

that  with  some  flickering,  faint-hearted  life? 
In  one  of  George  Eliot's  great  character 
studies  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with  what 
a  whisper  of  encouragement  can  do.  Bulstrode 
was  a  rich  banker.  For  twenty  years  he  had 
been  living  in  Middlemarch,  one  of  her  first 
citizens.  He  had  married  into  one  of  the  influ- 
ential families  of  the  community  and  was  a 
leader  in  church  and  state.  Then  one  cold 
morning,  in  late  autumn,  an  old  drunken  de- 
linquent staggered  into  his  office.  Rafiles  had 
known  Bulstrode  in  early  life,  but,  by  giving 
him  one  hundred  pounds,  the  banker  had  bribed 
him  to  silence  and  the  promise  to  leave  the  city 
forthwith  and  never  again  return.  But,  in  less 
than  six  months,  he  broke  his  promise  and  it 
cost  the  banker  two  hundred  pounds  more. 
Then  liquor  made  him  loquacious  and  he  scat- 
tered to  right  and  left  the  story  of  Bulstrode's 
low  birth  and  dishonest  early  gains,  that  the 
foundation  of  his  future  was  lain  in  sin  and 
shame  and  womanly  dishonour.  He  laid  the 
banker  bare  as  an  object  of  scorn.  The  revela- 
tion of  these  ugly  disclosures  came  like  a  thun- 
derbolt to  the  palatial  home  of  the  banker.  The 
wife  had  never  pried  into  the  early  life  of  her 
husband,  and  he  had  ever  been  discreetly  si- 
lent. But  to  the  daughters  in  society  it  was 
a  mortifying  shock  of  grievous  shame.    It  was 


174    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  when  the  door 
opened  and  the  wife  entered.  He  dared  not 
look  at  her.  With  eye  bent  down  he  sat,  and 
seemed  shrunken  and  smaller.  A  great  wave 
of  pity  surged  through  her  like  a  tidal  swell. 
Placing  her  hand  on  his  shoulder,  she  said, 
"  Nicholas,  look  up ;  notwithstanding,  I  love 
still."  And  they  wept  together.  No  further 
word  was  spoken.  Her  promise  of  fidelity  was 
silent.  He  read  her  purpose  to  bear  his  shame 
— and  that  moment  a  soul  was  born  for  truth 
and  life.  Dickens,  perhaps,  is  the  great  op- 
timist of  romance.  He  was  of  sympathy  all 
compact.  He  struck  many  a  telling  blow  for 
the  divinity  of  simple  kindness.  And  one  is 
tempted  to  doubt  sometimes  if  he  ever  sketched 
anything  finer  than  when  he  drew  the  develop- 
ment of  Sidney  Carton.  Sidney  was  a  shiftless, 
worthless  barrister  in  the  English  courts.  He 
loved  Lucy  Darnay,  the  daughter  of  an  old 
doctor.  And  Lucy  told  him  that  she  believed 
in  him  and  would  always  be  his  friend.  Such 
trust  was  inspiriting.  It  evoked  to  heroism. 
It  burned  out  the  dross  of  his  nature.  It  made 
him  unselfish  and  brave  and  true.  And,  when 
Lucy  gave  her  love  to  another,  his  devotion 
waned  not.  For,  even  when  her  lover  was 
seized  and  flung  into  prison  and  condemned  to 
death,    Sidney  joyfully   stole   in,   put  on  the 


RICHES  OF  ENCOURAGEMENT   175 

prison  garb,  and  gave  his  rival  liberty.  And 
to  the  guillotine  he  went,  "  sublime  and  pro- 
phetic," dying  like  the  hero  that  he  was.  But 
the  point  to  be  regarded  is  that  it  was  not  his 
love  for  her  so  much  as  her  faith  in  him  that 
provoked  the  Christ-like  sacrifice.  Wondrous 
and  past  understanding  is  the  power  of  confi- 
dence and  encouragement.  It  kindles  and 
lights  up  what  is  noble.  "  To  the  pure  all 
things  are  pure."  Jack  London  has  written 
for  us  a  story  which  he  entitles  the  "  Call  of 
the  Wild."  It  is  the  story  of  how  a  dog,  under 
ill-treatment,  loses  every  trace  of  gentleness 
and  goes  back  to  his  lupine  ancestry.  Another 
writer  gives  us  another  story  which  she  names 
the  "  Call  of  the  Good."  And  it  is  the  tale 
of  how  one  of  earth's  unfavoured  ones,  under 
love's  provocation,  becomes  a  child  of  the  King, 
and  goes  not  back,  but  forward  to  her  bright 
and  beckoning  birthright. 

III.  But  we  are  to  stimulate  one  another  to- 
ward yet  another  goal — the  joys  and  privileges 
of  public  worship.  "  Fellowship  is  heaven, 
lack  of  it  is  hell,"  said  William  Morris.  We 
are  perfected  in  union.  Each  strengthens  the 
other.  "  As  in  water  face  answereth  to  face 
so  the  heart  of  man  to  man."  We  are  com- 
rades in  the  struggle.  Christians  should  have 
such  a  bond  of  sympathy  and  brotherhood  be- 


176    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

tween  them  that  they  would  be  ever  eagle-eyed 
and  alert  for  mutual  recovery.  Catching  the 
backslider  on  the  slippery  decline  and  steady- 
ing him  to  the  level  again :  in  moments  when 
the  ascent  is  steepest,  each  lending  the  other  a 
push,  a  pull,  a  lift,  an  impulse.  The  member 
of  Christ's  church  should  be  not  only  a  decoy, 
a  lure  to  woo  the  outsider  into  the  fold.  He 
should  be  a  rod,  a  staff,  a  support,  a  comfort 
to  those  already  within.  We  are  to  strengthen 
as  well  as  introduce:  we  are  to  establish  as 
well  as  inaugurate :  we  are  to  train  soldiers 
as  well  as  enlist  them.  Like  the  Alpine  climber, 
we  are  all  beaded  together  and  the  slipping 
away  of  one  endangers  all.  George  Matheson 
calls  the  Church  "  the  League  of  Pity."  How 
delightful  the  designation! 

Ah,  there  would  be  fewer  meditating  deser- 
tion in  our  congregational  families  if  we  were 
all  thus-minded,  if  we  were  ever  found  on  the 
trail  of  the  faint,  feeble  follower  with  some 
ministry  of  cheer.  There  would  be  fewer 
lapses  from  our  membership.  "  Brethren,  if 
a  man  be  overtaken  in  any  trespass  ye  who  are 
spiritual  restore  such  a  one  in  the  spirit  of 
gentleness."  Is  it  not  here  that  the  Church  so 
lamentably  fails  in  her  duty?  Do  not  the 
secret  orders  leave  us  ofttimes  far  arear? 
Heliotropes  and  violets  are  said  to  have  a  mu- 


RICHES  OF  ENCOURAGEMENT   177 

tual  sympathy  with  each  other,  each  reacting 
helpfully  on  the  other.  And  we,  too,  can  dis- 
pose toward  health  and  growth  and  beauty. 
Sometimes  a  clasp  of  the  hand  will  do  it. 
Sometimes  a  simple  smile  works  wonders. 
There  are  recorded  cases  of  recovery  accom- 
plished by  the  smile  cure.  A  look  may  soften 
a  hard  heart ;  it  did  Peter's.  Did  not  our  word 
hospital  originally  mean  a  hospitable  place? 
The  Church  to-day  is  faint  and  famishing  for 
the  wine  of  warmth  and  hospitality.  What 
cold  ice-boxes  our  visible  Communions  are! 
What  poor  bungling  nurses  we  are  in  the  hos- 
pital of  the  spirit!  Hear,  then,  once  more  the 
wooing  words  of  the  Apostle.  "  Having  there- 
fore, brethren,  boldness  to  enter  into  the  holy 
place  by  the  blood  of  Jesus,  let  us  hold  fast 
the  confession  of  our  faith  that  it  waver  not, 
and  let  us  consider  one  another  to  provoke 
unto  love  and  beautiful  works,  not  forsaking 
our  own  assembling  together  as  the  custom  of 
some  is,  but  rather  exhorting  one  another,  and 
so  much  the  more  as  ye  see  the  day  drawing 
nigh." 


THE  RICHES  OF  REFUGE 


"  He    that    sitteth    in    the    heavens    shall    laugh. 
Psalm  2 : 4. 


IX 
THE  RICHES  OF  REFUGE 

DID  you  ever  question  a  Bible  sentence? 
Did  you  ever  say,  "  I  do  not  believe  it ; 
I  cannot  believe  it  "  ?  Did  you  ever 
read  a  chapter  and  stop  confounded?  Did  you 
feel  deep  down  in  your  heart,  "  I  wish  that 
wasn't  there;  I  would  we  had  an  abridged  edi- 
tion of  the  book  "  ? 

In  the  137th  Psalm  we  hear  the  sobbing  of 
the  exiles  by  the  streams  of  Babylon.  The 
harp  is  hanging  silent  on  the  weeping  willow. 
The  people  were  too  sad  for  even  plaintive 
music.  Tis  an  exceeding  tender  lyric.  But 
the  singer's  love  for  the  Holy  City  makes  him 
revengeful,  and  the  heartless  denunciation  of 
the  last  verse  comes  with  a  shock  of  piercing 
pain.  To  regard  it  as  an  inspiration  of  perfect 
thought  is  inconceivable.  Full  oft  the  Psalm- 
ists walk  in  a  human  world.  Not  infrequently 
their  hymnology  is  purely  military  and  sounds 
a  savage  note.  As  civilisation  advances,  and 
that  glad  day  draws  near  when  war  will  be  seen 
to  be  a  crime,  much  of  the  Old  Testament  will 
181 


182    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

become  barbaric.  The  109th  Psahn  is  a  bold 
battle  song,  but,  now  that  the  battle  is  over,  the 
song  has  lost  its  inspiring  bugle  call.  There  is 
no  other  acceptable  interpretation  than  that 
such  hymns  belong  solely  to  the  days  when  they 
were  sung. 

The  Bible  is,  indeed,  a  marvellous  literature. 
There  are  staggering  passages  in  its  pages.  One 
can  have  but  little  patience  with  that  pious  air 
that  can  see  no  perplexities  in  the  book.  Does 
not  even  Peter  speak  of  his  beloved  brother 
Paul  as  penning  some  things  hard  to  be  under- 
stood? These  very  difficulties  to  some  of  us 
have  caused  many  a  headache,  many  a  heart- 
ache. Full  many  a  time  have  we  bumped  our 
bewildered  brains  in  the  dark  against  some 
of  these  stone  walls  and  cried  for  light.  And, 
if  I  may  be  pardoned  the  liberty  of  a  personal 
confession,  one  of  the  things  that  led  me  into 
the  ministry  was  the  desire — presumptuous,  to 
be  sure,  but  nevertheless  earnest — to  make  a 
few  crooked  places  straight  and  a  few  rough 
places  plain  to  the  limping,  stumbling  pilgrim. 
How  vividly  I  can  remember,  as  a  boy,  sitting 
under  discourses  that  I  knew  were  a  caricature 
of  our  Heavenly  Father.  Indeed,  one  of  my 
earliest  memories  was  listening  to  a  sermon 
from  this  very  text  and  saying  to  a  friend,  as 
we  strolled  home  slowly  together,  "  Well,  if 


THE  RICHES  OF  REFUGE        183 

that  is  what  is  meant  by  being  a  Christian,  I 
fear  I  cannot  be  one."  There  are  scores  of 
young  men  to-day  whose  faith  is  being  clouded 
by  theories  that  are  untenable  in  the  light  of 
modern  learning.  A  great  many  articles  in 
our  theology  are  not  of  cardinal  concern.  If 
they  are  false,  no  one  is  harmed.  It  matters 
little  or  nothing,  for  instance,  whether  we  be- 
lieve in  a  physical  resurrection  or  a  spiritual. 
Either  will  carry  us  over  the  tide.  It  makes 
no  difference  with  some  problems  whether  we 
figure  them  out  wrong  or  figure  them  right. 
Even  guessing  does  no  serious  damage.  We 
may  be  hopelessly  wide  of  the  mark  in  our 
theory  of  the  Cosmos  or  the  millennium;  our 
ideas  may  be  fatuous  and  foolish  and  no  mis- 
chief be  forthcoming,  but,  if  we  are  given  a 
foolish  notion  of  the  Infinite,  the  mischief  is 
momentous.  Our  spiritual  catastrophe  is  lia- 
ble to  be  complete. 

Some  one  has  said  that  the  first  duty  of  a 
Christian  is  not  to  do  good,  not  even  to  be 
good,  but  to  be  sure  that  God  is  good.  And, 
surely,  the  best  faith  we  can  have  is  the  one 
that  gives  us  the  best  ideas  of  God.  Some- 
times we  hear  it  said,  "  It  matters  nothing  what 
one  thinks  about  the  '  Great  First  Cause.'  " 
Matters  nothing  ?  Why,  it  matters  everything. 
Indeed,   what  one  thinks  of  the  Great  First 


184    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

Cause  would  seem  to  some  of  us  to  be  about 
the  only  thing  that  does  matter  for  spir- 
itual defence.  Given  a  mechanical  God,  and 
fatalism  without  fail  follows.  Given  a  tyran- 
nical God,  and,  like  some  great  wave  of  poison, 
there  flows  forth  an  inquisition.  Given  a 
pusillanimous  God,  and  there  results,  in  indi- 
vidual and  nation,  moral  decadence.  But  given 
the  Father  God  of  Jesus,  and  there  issue  ten- 
derness and  strength  and  trust  and  obedience, 
and  love  and  likeness,  and  the  sunshine  of  joy, 
and  the  smile  of  little  children. 

But  let  us  return  to  the  text,  "  He  that  sit- 
teth  in  the  heavens  shall  laugh."  This  is  surely 
a  bold  and  baffling  affidavit.  It  challenges  en- 
quiry; it  provokes  contradiction  and  defiance. 
It  comes  as  a  dash  of  ice  water  on  the  face. 
What,  we  hear  it  said,  God  laughing  at  us! 
It  is  impossible;  it  cannot  be;  it  must  be  a 
translator's  mistake.  How  does  the  Revised 
Version  construe  the  clause?  Well,  here  it  is, 
"  He  that  sitteth  in  the  heavens  will  laugh." 
Just  one  word  changed — shall  to  will, — and 
the  change  is  for  the  worse,  because  will  is  the 
stronger  word,  denoting,  as  it  does,  decision. 
Mayhap  the  context  will  give  relief.  "  He  that 
sitteth  in  the  heavens  will  laugh ;  the  Lord  will 
have  them  in  derision."  No,  there  is  no  deliv- 
erance here.     The  passage  is  plain.     It  is  in 


THE  RICHES  OF  REFUGE        185 

the  Book.  It  is  one  of  the  Psalms,  and  not  an 
imprecatory  psalm  either.  It  cannot  be  ruled 
out,  cannot  be  explained  away.  It  is  a  straight, 
avoidless  statement  with  no  strings  attached — 
"  He  that  sitteth  in  the  heavens  will  laugh." 

So  let  us  turn  our  thoughts  to  the  mystic 
message;  let  us  try  to  gain  the  viewpoint  of 
the  inspired  singer,  and,  perhaps,  it  will  be  wise 
to  make  our  approach  by  the  old  cautious  path- 
way of  exclusion. 

I.  And  we  can  surely  step  with  safe  and 
confident  tread  when  we  say  that  the  Psalmist 
cannot  mean  that  the  good,  kind  Father  laughs 
at  our  Infirmities.  That  needs  no  long  or  hard 
belabouring.  Can  you  conceive  of  yourself 
laughing  at  the  malformation  of  your  fellow- 
creatures?  When  you  see  a  poor  blind  beggar 
tapping  his  uncertain  way  along  the  curbstone, 
does  it  provoke  your  amusement  ?  When  you 
meet  some  unlucky  cripple  hobbling  along  the 
sidewalk,  does  it  tickle  you  to  merriment?  Do 
you  enjoy  that  kind  of  music?  The  thought 
is  unthinkable  and  calls  for  no  reply. 

The  nobler  and  richer  the  nature,  the  bigger 
the  bump  of  compassion.  Pity  is  the  stamp 
of  moral  greatness.  The  murderer  lacks  pity ; 
the  tyrant  lacks  pity.  But  the  Child  of  the 
King  is  pitiful.  The  very  sight  of  sorrow  sends 
a  pang  to  his  heart.     Pity  is  the  proof  of  no- 


186    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

ble  resource.  The  loftier  one  mounts  the  lad- 
der of  goodness,  the  more  tenderly  does  he 
survey  the  maladies  of  men.  To  grow  in  grace 
is  to  grow  in  far-reaching  compassion.  The 
old  world  knew  no  pity  for  misfortune.  In- 
firmity was  a  mark  of  the  Divine  displeasure. 
If  a  man  was  blind,  he  was  deservedly  so,  else 
he  would  not  be  blind.  Might  was  the  only 
Divine  right.  Instance  Burns.  His  sympathy 
for  "  auld  Nickie  Ben  "  is  one  of  the  sweetest 
things  in  literature.  It  is  a  lasting  tribute  to 
the  loftiness  and  quality  of  the  great  poet's 
heart.  The  thought  that  even  the  vilest  wretch 
should  live  in  deprivation  all  his  days,  shad- 
owed the  immortal  singer  with  the  keen- 
est pain.  His  great,  strong,  noble  nature 
suffered  with  his  unfortunate  brother.  It  was 
sympathy  of  true  sterling  coinage.  And  think 
you  that  the  infinitely  wise  and  loving  Parent 
can  stand  in  the  presence  of  sorrow  and  affect 
it?  That  would  be  a  shocking  perversion  of 
the  Fatherhood.  In  all  this  tragedy  and  tear- 
fulness about  us,  the  most  appealing  sight  to 
the  great  tender  mercies  of  the  Infinite  must 
be  man  in  his  crippled  helplessness.  Nothing 
moves  the  human  heart  so  deeply.  How  much 
more  must  it  move  the  Divine  heart.  "  For 
He  knoweth  our  frame,  He  remembereth  that 
we  are  dust." 


THE  RICHES  OF  REFUGE        187 

It  was  the  joy  of  Jesus  to  heal  the  body. 
Most  of  His  miracles  were  miracles  of  healing 
— cripples,  paralytics,  lepers,  lunatics,  sightless 
eyes,  palsied  limbs,  deaf  ears.  And  the  burden 
of  His  great  passion  to-day  is  to  get  access  to 
the  soul  in  need,  to  gain  entrance,  so  as  to 
relieve  its  distress.  It  is  the  fundamental  note 
in  His  overtures  of  love.  "  For  we  have  not 
an  High  Priest  who  cannot  be  touched  with  a 
feeling  of  our  infirmities,  but  one  who  was  in 
all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without 
sin." 

II.  Let  us  eliminate  another  false  line  of 
approach.  God  never  laughs  at  our  Ignorance. 
Arnold,  of  Rugby,  has  told  us,  in  classic  strain, 
how  the  severest  rebuke  he  ever  got  was  re- 
ceived from  the  stupidest  boy  he  had  in  school. 
He  was  reproving  this  pupil  one  day  for  his 
dulness.  The  boy  replied,  with  tears  in  his 
eyes :  "  Why  do  you  scold  me,  sir?  I  am  doing 
my  best."  What  think  you  the  great  school- 
master did?  Laugh  at  the  lad?  Nay,  nay; 
too  much  of  a  gentleman  was  the  noted  edu- 
cator for  that.  Quite  the  contrary,  he  apolo- 
gised. The  native  dulness  of  the  little  fellow, 
trying,  as  he  said,  to  do  his  best,  gripped  the 
accomplished  scholar's  heart  and  taught  him  a 
lesson  he  always  remembered. 

It  is  ever  thus  with  large  minds.     The  im- 


188    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

poverishment  and  privation  of  their  fellows 
evokes  their  compassion,  not  their  mirth.  Who 
can  stroll  through  the  hovels  of  a  great  city, 
on  a  tour  of  Christian  inspection,  and  note  the 
haunts,  the  wretchedness,  the  woe,  without 
venting  a  groan?  It  is  advantage  beholding 
disadvantage.  Does  the  hostess,  who  is  a  true 
lady,  laugh  at  her  guest?  The  guest  may  be 
rough  and  uncultured.  He  may  have  a  rude, 
rugged  exterior.  He  may  know  but  little  about 
the  Chesterfieldian  etiquette  of  the  drawing- 
room  or  the  dining-table,  but,  if  he  is  honestly 
endeavouring,  the  kind-hearted  woman  does 
not  draw  herself  up  in  haughty  dimensions  and 
laugh  from  her  throne.  One  poor  fellow  in  his 
awkward,  yet  innocent  uncouthness,  so  the  old 
story  goes,  drank  the  water  in  the  finger-bowl 
— thinking  it  was  lemonade.  What  think  you 
the  gracious  hostess  did  ?  Drank  it,  too.  Just 
what  Jesus  Christ  would  have  done.  Yes,  that 
was  grace.  It  was  the  Christ  in  her  that  did 
that.  That  was  the  very  aroma  of  Christian 
fellow-feeling.  Longfellow  enjoyed  a  story 
about  himself,  which  he  was  fond  of  passing  on 
to  his  friends.  He  had  been  admitted  to  an 
audience  with  Queen  Victoria.  She  held  out 
her  hand,  as  was  her  custom,  for  him  to  kneel 
and  kiss.  But  the  poet  had  not  studied  court 
etiquette  and  he  shook  it  cordially.     But  the 


THE  RICHES  OF  REFUGE        189 

kindly  Victoria  did  not  laugh  at  our  laureate. 
Too  much  of  a  queen  was  she  for  that.  And 
think  you  again  that  the  King  of  Glory  is  en- 
tertained by  our  crudities,  our  rawness,  our 
unripeness  ?  Alas !  we  are  so  ignorant.  We  blun- 
der so !  We  know  so  little,  and  we  put  on  so 
many  airs,  as  if  we  knew  so  much.  Is  not  the 
supreme  jest  of  history  ignorance  pretending 
to  know  ? 

One  of  the  truest  servants  of  the  King  it 
has  ever  been  my  privilege  to  know  was  an 
elder  in  the  parish  of  my  early  ministry.     He 
was  wholly  unlettered,   but,  with  his  Divine 
Master,  he  walked  daily  in  white.     No  one 
could  have  been  more  earnest  in  prayer,  and 
full  oft  his  prayers  were  amusing.     He  knew 
he  could  not  speak  good  English,  and,  if  by 
some  flank  movement  he  could  be  lured  into 
a  spelling  match,  all  would  agree  that  he  had 
not  the  faintest  idea  what  orthography  was  for. 
He  knew  the  boys  nudged  each  other  when  he 
rose  to  speak  in  testimony  meeting,   but   he 
was  willing  to  be  a  fool  for  Christ's  sake.    One 
of  his  pet  expressions  in  prayer  was,  "  Oh,  God, 
humiliate  us !  "   Think  you  God  smiled  ?  Think 
you  the  Kind  Father  is  pleased  to  humiliate 
His  child?    Ah,  He  is  too  gracious  for  that! 
But  our  poor,  penitent  publican  in  prayer  meet- 
ing meant,  "  Oh,  Lord,  keep  us  humble,  keep  us 


190    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

lowly!";  and,  every  time  that  petition  was 
spoken,  it  rose  as  sweet  incense  to  the  throne. 
It  was  a  fragrant  flower  from  the  garden  of  a 
loving  heart. 

III.  Let  us  discard  another  fruitless  trail 
from  our  list  of  impossibles.  God  never  laughs 
at  our  Iniquities.  He  never  laughs  at  sin.  Sin 
is  not  a  laughing  matter  up  in  heaven.  Full 
oft  we  joke  about  it  down  here  on  earth.  Every 
attempt  is  made  to  hide  its  ugliness.  Ever 
and  anon  we  smile  at  the  poor  inebriate,  im- 
potent in  the  gutter.  But  not  so  the  angels. 
Our  forefathers  felt  much  the  loathsomeness 
of  sin,  but  to-day  we  hear  more  about  the  comic 
side  of  it.  Some  there  are  who  would  be 
shocked  to  go  to  a  dinner  without  a  dress-suit 
on,  but  who  would  feel  not  one  whit  reproached 
to  return  at  midnight  staggering.  In  a  recent 
play  from  the  pen  of  a  great  English  writer, 
adultery  is  portrayed  as  a  "  ripple  on  the  ocean 
of  God's  love."  Robert  Blatchford  opines  that 
the  Cross  of  Jesus  is  funny.  Another  sceptic 
says  it  is  vulgar.  And  it  surely  is,  but  wherein 
consists  the  vulgarity?  It  is  the  vulgarity  of 
sin,  is  it  not?  The  vulgarity  that  nailed  Him 
there;  the  vulgarity  that  mocked  and  scoffed 
as  He  hung  between  two  thieves.  We  do  not 
feel  the  sting  of  contrition  any  more,  and 
maybe  that  is  why  there  are  no  saints  to-day. 


THE  RICHES  OF  REFUGE        191 

for,  mark  you,  it  takes  a  saint  to  fully  see  sin. 
A  man  must  inhabit  the  heights  to  be  stirred 
by  the  depths.  Here  is  Jerusalem — hard,  stony, 
rebellious,  remote.  The  Christ  looked  down 
upon  its  unholy  indifference  and  it  moved  Him 
to  tears.  Has  the  gilded  iniquity  of  the  city 
ever  moved  us  to  tears  ?  Have  you  not  some- 
times listened  to  a  questionable  story  and,  out 
of  courtesy,  feigned  to  enjoy  the  indelicacy? 
Ah!  if  we  had  the  mind  of  Jesus,  we  would 
drop  the  eye,  and  blush,  and  burn  in  sorrowful 
and  consuming  shame.  Such  things  would 
smite  us  as  a  thick  smoke  stifles  the  breath. 
And  the  pressing  and  insistent  burden  of 
revelation  is  that  God  hates  sin.  He  never 
laughs  at  it.  It  grieves  Him.  You  do  not  laugh 
when  you  are  grieved.  Sin  is  such  a  tragic 
thing  that,  when  we  look  at  it  from  the  celestial 
viewpoint,  all  the  merriment  dies  out  of  our 
hearts.  Instance  this  story  one  of  my  col- 
leagues told  me  but  yesterday.  He  was  called 
to  visit  a  home  from  which  the  mother  had 
been  taken.  She  lay  cold  and  still  in  the  par- 
lour. Hearing  the  footsteps  approaching,  the 
little  children  ran  shivering  into  hiding.  They 
feared  it  was  the  father.  Oh,  the  pathos  of  it! 
The  day  was  bitter  cold,  but  not  a  coal  was 
in  the  bin.  At  night  the  father  returned, 
steeped  in  drink.     He  was  ugly  and  in  savage 


192    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

mood.  In  rage,  he  struck  his  child,  knock- 
ing him  against  the  wall.  In  the  morning,  just 
before  the  funeral,  the  doctor  said,  "  I  really 
cannot  say ;  he's  a  very  sick  boy."  And,  on  the 
following  morning,  just  as  the  light  was  be- 
ginning to  peep  into  the  windows  of  the  cheer- 
less tenement,  that  father  was  holding  in  his 
arms  the  little  pulseless  frame  of  his  oldest 
boy  and  calling  out  in  despair,  "  Oh,  my  God ! 
what  have  I  done?  " 

Why  do  you  not  laugh?  "  Oh,  that  is  not  a 
laughing  matter !  "  you  say.  Verily,  indeed,  'tis 
not.  It  is  a  bitterly  weeping  matter.  It  is  the 
melting,  harrowing  tragedy  of  sin.  Ah !  when 
sin  lays  waste  your  boy,  all  the  fun  of  it  chokes 
in  the  heart.  The  time  for  God  to  laugh  is 
when  the  sinner  repents.  "  There  is  joy  in  the 
presence  of  the  angels  over  one  sinner  that  re- 
penteth."  Of  what  avail  is  it  to  know  that 
God  hates  sin,  unless  we  also  know  that  He 
longs  to  pardon  sin?  The  sinner  who  only 
knows  God  as  holy  will  be  goaded  to  despair. 
Our  Heavenly  Father  delights  not  in  hounding 
the  guilty  to  the  lost  world.  He  delights, 
rather,  in  saving  the  guilty  from  the  lost  world. 
To  know  God  is  to  know  God  in  Christ  recon- 
ciling the  world  unto  Himself — "  a  love  that 
will  not  let  us  go." 

These,  then,  are  the  paths  we  pass  by  as  not 


THE  RICHES  OF  REFUGE        193 

leading  us  to  the  throne  which  is  set  upon  the 
holy  hill  of  Zion.  Whither  now  shall  we  turn? 
Whither  go  to  find  the  highway  of  Jehovah  and 
of  His  anointed?  How  arrive  at  the  seat  of 
His  laughter  and  wrath  and  sore  displeasure  ? 

I.  I  think  we  are  on  safe  and  certain  ground 
when  we  say  that  He  laughs  at  our  Idolatries. 
Carlyle,  in  one  of  his  essays,  observes  that  hu- 
mour is  foreign  to  the  Hebrew  genius,  but  who 
that  reads  that  46th  chapter  of  Isaiah  can  help 
remarking  the  irony  thereof?  It  is  the  de- 
scription of  the  making  of  an  idol.  "  The  peo- 
ple lavish  their  gold  and  hire  a  goldsmith  who 
maketh  it  into  a  god.  They  bear  it  upon  their 
shoulders.  They  carry  it  and  set  it  in  its  place, 
and  it  standeth.  From  its  place  shall  it  not 
remove.  They  cry  unto  it,  but  it  cannot  an- 
swer." Or  witness  that  contest  on  Mount  Car- 
mel.  "  And  Elijah  said  unto  the  prophets  of 
Baal,  '  Choose  you  one  bullock  for  yourselves 
and  dress  it  and  call  on  the  name  of  your  God.' 
And  they  took  the  bullock  and  dressed  it  and 
called  on  the  name  of  Baal  from  morning  until 
noon,  saying,  *  Oh  Baal,  hear  us.'  And  it  came 
to  pass  at  noon  that  Elijah  said,  '  Cry  aloud; 
maybe  he  is  musing  or  peradventure  he  sleep- 
eth.'  "  Think  you  not  there  is  humour  in  these 
lines  ?  Or  come  to  the  New  Testament.  Two 
men  are  wending  their  way  to  the  temple :  the 


194    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

one  a  Pharisee,  the  other  a  publican.  "  The 
Pharisee  stands  and  prays  thus  with  himself." 
"  With  himself,"  it  will  be  noted.  He  is  pray- 
ing to  himself.  "  Part  of  him  is  praying,  and 
part  is  listening."  As  some  one  once  remarked 
of  Madame  de  Stael,  "  She  listens  to  herself 
while  she  talks."  It  surely  must  be  that  He 
who  sitteth  in  the  heavens  laughed  at  the  pre- 
posterous absurdity.  For  man,  measuring  him- 
self against  the  Infinite,  must  ever  be  a  lu- 
dicrous spectacle.  Nothing  kills  idolatry 
quicker  than  the  cultivation  of  the  sense  of 
humour. 

And,  alas!  with  sorrow  let  it  be  confessed, 
idolatry  is  not  a  past  and  ancient  obliquity;  it 
is  a  modern  offence;  it  is  the  flagrant  peril  of 
the  age.  The  first  commandment  in  the  deca- 
logue calls  for  repeated  rehearsal  to-day.  We 
are  bowing  down  to  images  graven  and  un- 
graven.  Some  make  an  idol  of  their  Church, 
some  of  their  confessional,  some  of  their  rit- 
ual. A  distinguished  churchman  remarked  but 
yesterday  that,  if  a  drunkard  will  but  take  the 
sacraments  from  duly  consecrated  hands,  it 
will  kill  his  appetite  for  drink.  The  Emperor 
Constantine,  it  will  be  remembered,  postponed 
baptism  until  death  was  imminent,  on  the 
ground  that  baptism  washed  away  all  sin,  and 
that   sins  committed  after  the   administering 


THE  RICHES  OF  REFUGE        195 

of  the  ordinance  might  be  as  few  as  possible. 
In  reading  Lord  Morley's  life  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, we  came  across  the  following  words. 
They  are  part  of  a  letter  which  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland  wrote  to  the  great  commoner  some 
seventy  years  ago,  and  they  are  to  the  effect 
that,  "  in  his  opinion,  nothing  had  done  the 
Church  so  much  harm  as  the  bishops  abandon- 
ing wigs."  The  admirers  of  John  Bunyan  are 
just  now  putting  a  window  to  his  memory  in 
Westminster  Abbey.  But,  while  the  immortal 
dreamer  lived,  he  was  persecuted  and  impris- 
oned by  this  very  Church,  and,  if  he  were  to 
come  to  life  to-day,  he  would  not  be  permitted 
to  preach  in  the  place  of  his  memorial.  For, 
mark  you,  if  a  nonconformist  were  by  some 
strange  unprecedented  happening  to  speak  in 
the  pulpit  of  the  great  historic  abbey,  it  would 
profane  the  temple  and  call  for  another  recon- 
secration.  There  is  not  in  the  whole  of  the 
New  Testament  so  much  as  the  flutter  of  a 
sacerdotal  robe.  There  are  elders,  prophets, 
apostles,  evangelists,  teachers,  deacons,  minis- 
ters, but  no  priests.  And  yet  to-day  "  the  Cru- 
cifix has  become  one  of  the  greatest  enemies 
of  the  Cross." 

And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses :  "  I  have  seen 
the  people,  and  behold  it  is  a  stiff-necked  people. 
They  have  made  them  a  golden  calf  and  have 


196    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

worshipped  it,  and  have  sacrificed  thereunto, 
and  said,  '  These  be  thy  gods,  oh  Israel.'  And 
Moses  came  down  from  the  mountain  and  as 
soon  as  he  came  nigh  to  the  camp  he  saw  the 
calf  and  the  dancing,  and  his  anger  increased, 
and  he  took  the  molten  image  which  they  had 
made  and  burnt  it  in  the  fire  and  ground  it  to 
powder  and  strewed  it  upon  the  water,  and 
made  the  children  of  Jehovah  drink  of  it  be- 
cause the  anger  of  the  Lord  waxed  hot."  Alas ! 
another  golden  calf  has  arisen  phoenix-like,  and 
in  more  stupendous  dimensions,  from  these  very 
ashes,  and  men  are  bowing  down  to  it  as  never 
before  and  dancing  and  offering  sacrifices. 
Fashion,  too,  lifts  her  altar,  and  Society  hers, 
and  Worldliness  hers,  and  Intellect  hers,  and 
Sport  hers,  and  Popularity  hers.  And  time 
fails  to  even  detail  these  multiple  idols  of  the 
hour.  But  meanwhile  the  anger  of  the  Lord 
is  being  kindled. 

II.  And  now  we  have  reached  the  terminal 
of  our  enquiry,  the  object  of  our  quest.  God 
laughs  at  our  Insurrections.  For  idolatry  at 
heart  is  naught  but  the  dominion  of  the  flesh. 
It  is  rebellion  against  the  one  true,  supreme, 
spiritual  Sovereignty.  "  Why  do  the  heathen 
rage,  and  the  peoples  meditate  a  vain  thing? 
The  kings  of  the  earth  set  themselves,  and  the 
rulers  take  counsel  together,  against  Jehovah 


THE  RICHES  OF  REFUGE        197 

and  against  His  anointed,  saying,  Let  us  break 
their  bonds  asunder,  and  cast  away  their  cords 
from  us.  He  that  sitteth  in  the  heavens  will 
laugh."  Why,  this  is  most  dramatic  writing. 
God  laughs  at  the  people  who  fight  Him. 
"  Blessed  is  the  man  that  walketh  not  in  the 
counsel  of  the  ungodly  nor  sitteth  in  the  seat 
of  the  scornful."  The  scorner  is  contemptuous 
toward  that  which  is  sacred.  "  The  wicked 
plotteth  against  the  just  and  gnasheth  upon 
him  with  his  teeth.  The  Lord  will  laugh  at 
him." 

Take  down  your  Milton.  Turn  to  that  tale 
of  the  rebel  spirits.  We  can  hear  them 
chuckling  with  glee.  They  are  about  to  topple 
over  with  their  artillery  the  armed  hosts  of 
heaven.  But  the  sequel !  Ah,  the  sequel !  The 
King  just  sat  calmly  on  His  quiet  throne  and 
laughed.  You  are  students  of  history.  What 
hath  history  to  say  ?  When  Xerxes  crossed  the 
Hellespont,  he  lashed  the  waves  of  the  sea 
and  said,  "  Hush  there,  be  still ;  I'm  your  mas- 
ter." But  the  sea  and  the  God  of  the  sea  had 
him  in  derision,  and  swallowed  his  ships,  and 
smashed  his  bridges  and  scattered  the  broken 
timbers  thereof  along  the  Peloponnesian  shore. 
You  are  students  of  history.  What  again  saith 
history?  Voltaire  fought  God.  He  said  that, 
in  twenty  years,  the  Almighty  will  see  some 


198    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

fine  fun  in  Europe  and  that,  before  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  Christianity  would  be 
mummified.  It  is  rather  a  memorable  rebuke 
that  the  house  in  which  that  prediction  was 
made  is  to-day  a  depository  for  the  Bible 
Society. 

This  summer,  I  took  up  Tom  Paine's  "  Age 
of  Reason."  Without  doubt,  it  is  a  brilliant 
critique.  One  cannot  fail  to  admire  the  des- 
perate daring  of  the  man.  He  closes  the  fifth 
chapter  by  saying  that  he  has  gone  through  the 
Bible  as  a  man  might  go  through  a  forest  with 
an  axe  felling  trees.  "  There  the  books  lie," 
he  goes  on ;  "  the  priests  may  stick  them  in  the 
ground  again,  but  they  can  never  make  them 
grow."  Poor  Paine!  His  "  Reason  "  and  his 
axe  are  forgotten,  but  the  Book  lives  to-day  in 
four  hundred  languages,  the  forest  covers  the 
earth.  One  cannot  help  surmising  that  God,  up 
there  in  glory,  must  at  least  have  smiled.  That 
was  a  timely  story  reported  at  the  time  of  the 
San  Francisco  earthquake,  in  which  a  little 
bootblack  went  down,  after  the  ashes  had 
cooled,  to  see  if  he  could  find  his  box  of 
brushes.  But,  reaching  the  old  stand,  he  found 
nothing  but  bricks  and  stones  and  charcoal  and 
debris.  Then,  turning  his  grimy  face  toward 
the  tottering  walls,  he  remarked  to  a  bystander : 
"  Say,    Cap,    'taint    no    use    fur    a    feller    to 


THE  RICHES  OF  REFUGE        199 

think  he  can  lick  God.  Jez  one  thing  to  do — 
take  things  as  they  come  and  act  as  if  you  wuz 
glad."  Verily,  indeed,  the  verdict  of  the  little 
gamin  was  right. 

Let  us,  then,  take  heed  to  our  ways.  "  Wis- 
dom crieth  aloud  in  the  street ;  she  uttereth  her 
voice  in  the  broad  places ;  how  long,  ye  simple 
ones,  will  ye  love  simplicity  and  scoffers  delight 
themselves  in  scoffing  ?  Turn  ye  at  my  reproof. 
Because  I  have  called  and  ye  have  refused;  I 
have  stretched  out  my  hand  and  no  man  hath 
regarded,  but  ye  have  set  at  naught  all  my  coun- 
sel and  would  none  of  my  reproof;  I  also  will 
laugh  in  the  day  of  your  calamity  :  I  will  mock 
when  your  fear  cometh."  Have  mercy  upon 
us,  oh,  God !  according  to  Thy  loving  kindness. 
Be  not  this  our  condemnation.  Pity  us  rather 
in  our  ignorance,  in  our  infirmities.  Take  us 
not  away  in  Thy  long-suffering,  but  forgive 
the  iniquity  of  Thy  people  and  cause  Thine 
indignation  toward  us  to  cease,  and  quicken  us 
again,  and  grant  us  Thy  salvation.  Be  not  to 
us  wrath,  but  refuge. 


'  Hide  me,  oh,  my  Saviour,  hide. 
Till  the   storm  of  life  be   past. 

'Cover  my  defenceless  head 
With  the  shadow  of  Thy  wing." 


200    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

Put  far  from  us  the  rebellious  spirit,  the  defiant 
mood.  Grant  us  the  submissive  hearts  of  will- 
ing children.  "  For  His  wrath  may  soon  be 
kindled,  but  blessed  are  all  they  that  take  refuge 
in  Him." 


THE  RICHES  OF  INFLUENCE 


"  Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth." — Matthew  5 :  13. 


X 

XHE  RICHES  OF  INFLUENCE 

THERE  is  an  old  proverb  which  says, 
"  Prevention  is  better  than  cure."  It 
is  easier  to  keep  one's  health  than  to 
have  it  restored.  It  is  wiser  to  forestall  trouble 
than  to  arrest  it.  A  fence  at  the  top  of  the 
precipice  is  more  in  keeping  with  reason  than 
a  hospital  and  a  corps  of  nurses  at  the  bottom. 
Chloride  of  sodium  is  a  more  valuable  ingredi- 
ent than  chloride  of  lime. 

This  is  the  genius  of  salt.  Salt  is  pungent, 
preventive,  preservative,  purifying.  So,  from 
the  beginning,  it  has  been  a  valuable  commod- 
ity. How  flat  and  insipid  is  food  without  salt ! 
Indeed,  to  the  Oriental,  it  was  a  sacred  sub- 
stance. Homer  called  it  divine.  Plato  felt  it 
must  be  a  compound  dear  to  the  gods.  Full  oft 
covenants  were  made  with  it  and  consecrated 
by  sacrifice.  The  Jews  made  use  of  it  to  an 
extent  quite  considerable  in  their  religious  wor- 
ship. They  used  it  partly  because  of  its  sym- 
bolism. It  is  a  transparent  crystalline  mineral 
with  certain  weight,  specific  gravity,  and  solu- 
203 


204    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

bility.  Electrolysis  discloses  the  fact  that  it  is 
composed  of  two  elements,  a  metal  known  as 
sodium  and  a  gas  chlorine.  Science  tells  us  that 
it  is  an  antiseptic.  "  Ye  are  the  salt."  "  Ye 
are  the  light."  Light  is  a  disinfectant.  Even 
the  old  Greeks  understood  the  germicidal 
power  of  sunlight.  They  represent  the  sun 
god  Apollo  as  slaying  the  foul  monster 
Python,  sprung  from  slime  and  darkness.  But 
salt  is  not  a  germicide.  It  hath  no  power  to 
change  corruption  into  incorruption.  It  has 
virtue  only  to  ward  off  mischief  and  enable 
purity  to  remain  pure.  When  the  surgeon  is 
about  to  operate,  he  soaks  his  hands  in  a  solu- 
tion of  permanganate  of  potash  till  they  are 
stained  a  dull  mahogany.  Then  he  plunges 
them  into  another  solution  of  oxalic  acid. 
Next,  he  washes  them  in  sterile  water.  Then 
he  puts  on  rubber  gloves  that  have  been  asepti- 
cised;  these  precautions  being  purely  pre- 
ventive. Just  so  salt,  rubbed  into  the  tissue 
of  things,  sweetens,  counteracts  infection,  and 
saves  from  possible  attack.  It  cleanses  and 
gives  a  wholesome  flavour  to  the  lump.  It 
does  not  wait  till  decomposition  begins  its  de- 
moralising mischief  before  asserting  its  aggres- 
sive presence  and  healthful  ministry.  It  com- 
bats the  intruder  at  the  door,  challenges  his 
right   of   entrance,   denies   him    footing,    and 


THE  RICHES  OF  INFLUENCE    205 

claims  possession  on  the  ground  of  title  of 
entry. 

Herein  is  suggested  the  principle  of  the  pres- 
ent revolution  in  the  practice  of  medicine-  the 
Idea  bemg  not  to  destroy  the  germs  of  disease 
but  to  fortify  the  constitution  against  them,' 
to  make  the  organism  exempt,  to  establish  a 
power  of  resistance.     The  strategy  of  medical 
science  to-day  is  better  hygiene,  the  putting 
the  body  above  par,  and  so  conferring  immu- 
nity from  attack.     It  strengthens  the  fortifica- 
tions and  aims  to  keep  the  intruder  without 
But  It  does  more.    It  puts  up  an  offensive  plan 
of  campaign  and  makes  occasional  visits  into 
the  enemy •s  country,  thus  weakening  his  power 
of  assault.     What  marvellous  advances  have 
been  made  in  pathology  through  the  ministry 
of  precaution.     Instance  puerperal  fever,  that 
scourge  once  so  fatal  to  motherhood,  or  diph- 
theria or  tetanus  or  cerebro-spinal-meningitis 
The  serum  treatment  for  rabies  is  a  prophylac- 
tic measure.     Smallpox  was  the  dread  of  the 
Middle  Ages.     In  the  eighteenth  century,  it  is 
claimed  that  eighty-five  per  cent,  of  the  popu- 
lation of  Europe  were  seized  by  it  at  some 
period  of  their  lives.     To-day  the  scourge  is 
well-nigh  stamped  out.     And,  speaking  of  the 
protozoan  type  of  diseases,  a  scientist  of  note 
has   recently   claimed   that,    if   the   mosquito 


206    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

theory  of  yellow  fever  had  not  been  established 
in  1900,  the  Panama  Canal  could  never  have 
progressed  so  rapidly.  Dr.  Osier  has  given  us 
an  article  in  the  American  Magazine  for  De- 
cember, 1910,  in  which,  among  other  things, 
he  says :  "  How  little  do  we  appreciate  what 
even  a  generation  has  done !  The  man  is  only 
just  dead  (Robert  Koch)  who  gave  to  his 
fellow-men  the  control  of  cholera.  Read  the 
story  of  yellow  fever  in  Havana  and  in  Brazil 
if  you  wish  to  get  an  idea  of  the  powers  of 
experimental  medicine;  there  is  nothing  to 
match  it  in  the  history  of  human  achievement. 
Before  our  eyes  to-day  the  most  striking  ex- 
periment ever  made  in  sanitation  is  in  progress. 
The  digging  of  the  Panama  Canal  was  ac- 
knowledged to  be  a  question  of  the  health  of 
the  workers.  For  four  centuries  the  Isthmus 
had  been  a  white  man's  grave,  and  at  one  time, 
during  the  French  control  of  the  Canal,  the 
mortality  reached  the  appalling  figures  of  170 
per  thousand.  Even  under  the  most  favour- 
able circumstances  it  was  extraordinarily  high. 
Month  by  month  I  get  the  Reports  which  form, 
by  far,  the  most  interesting  sanitary  reading 
of  the  present  day.  Of  more  than  54,000  em- 
ployees (about  13,000  of  whom  are  white), 
the  death-rate  per  thousand  for  the  month  of 
March  was  8.91,  a  lower  percentage,  I  believe, 


THE  RICHES  OF  INFLUENCE    207 

than  in  any  city  in  the  United  Kingdom,  and 
very  much  lower  than  in  any  city  in  the  United 
States." 

Now,  Christians  are  to  be  the  salt  of  the 
earth.  They  are  to  be  a  coimteractant  to  de- 
cay. They  are  to  keep  society  from  festering. 
Great  is  the  art  of  healing  disease,  but  even 
greater  is  becoming  the  art  of  preventing  it. 
This  does  not  displace  Christianity  as  the  one 
curative  energy.  For  this  it  must  ever  be.  Its 
founder  is  the  Great  Physician.  The  world  is 
sick  and  only  He  can  make  it  whole.  He,  and 
He  alone,  can  restore  the  soul.  But,  while  His 
mission  is  primarily  redemptive,  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  it  has  a  preventive  ministry  as 
well.  Henry  Drummond  tells  of  a  very  earnest 
discussion  in  heaven.  Two  saints  are  debating 
which  of  them  is  the  greatest  monument  of 
God's  saving  grace.  The  one  had  been  a  very 
wicked  man  who  had  repented  on  his  death- 
bed and  been  snatched  at  the  eleventh  hour 
from  the  burning;  the  other  had  been  a  Chris- 
tian all  the  way  from  childhood.  One  would 
have  supposed  that,  of  course,  the  former  was 
the  greater  miracle  of  mercy.  But,  strange 
as  it  may  seem,  the  listeners  agree  that  the 
latter  has  most  to  be  thankful  for.  Because, 
while  it  required  infinite  grace  to  save  the  vet- 
eran at  the  close  of  all  his  guilty  orgies,  it 


208    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

required  even  more  grace  to  preserve  the  other 
scathless  throughout  the  tempted  years.  It  is 
the  great  keeping  power  of  God. 

And  the  children  of  the  Kingdom,  too,  are 
to  be  preservatives.  They  are  to  so  conserve 
society  that  it  shall  be  safe  and  sanitary.  They 
are  to  turn  aside  visitation.  There  were  kings 
of  Israel  who  walked  with  Jehovah,  so  that 
the  judgment  of  Heaven  did  not  fall  upon  the 
people  in  their  day.  Was  not  Sodom  destroyed 
because  ten  righteous  men  could  not  be  found 
in  it?  Are  we  not  to  train  up  our  little  ones 
in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord? 
And  does  not  this  imply  the  forestalling  of  in- 
fection and  the  panoply  against  peril? 

How  fruitful  of  illustration  is  the  field!  In 
a  certain  Western  town,  an  epidemic  of  typhoid 
broke  out.  The  trouble  was  traced  to  the  milk 
supply.  The  free  beds  in  the  hospital  were 
taxed  to  their  utmost.  The  epidemic  cost  the 
city  several  thousand  dollars.  A  bacteriological 
examination  beforehand  could  have  saved  all 
this  trouble.  And,  if  the  dairies  are  begin- 
ning to  be  watched,  is  not  the  drama  worth  in- 
spection? The  first  criminal  executed  in  the 
state  of  New  York  was  a  man  by  the  name  of 
Kemmler.  Some  one  had  an  investigation 
made  to  find  out  what  this  uxoricide  cost  the 
state  from  the  beginning  of  the  tragedy  up  to 


THE  RICHES  OF  INFLUENCE    209 

the  day  the  button  was  pressed,  and,  all  told, 
it  footed  up  to  something  like  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  A  casket  at  the  beginning 
for  Kemmler's  wife,  another  at  the  end  for 
Kemmler  himself,  detectives,  courts,  alienists, 
judges,  juries,  lawyers,  appeals,  and  then  an 
electric  apparatus,  all  amounting  to  one  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars.  And  all  this  costly 
waste  hatched  in  a  saloon.  Only  the  other 
day,  in  the  city  of  Atlanta,  the  judge  of  the 
police  court  said,  "  I  find  that  more  than 
seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  cases  of  crime 
brought  before  me  are  the  direct  result  of 
strong  drink."  But  the  facts  are  uncontested. 
They  need  no  stressed  insistence.  Only,  the 
half — aye,  the  tenth — has  not  been  told.  What 
would  seem  to  be  the  wise  plan  of  procedure? 
Must  we  fold  our  arms  and  watch  this  river 
of  alcoholic  poison  flow  by  into  its  stagnant 
receptacle  of  death?  Must  we  do  nothing  to 
check  the  mad  momentum  of  the  stream,  grow- 
ing ever  greater  and  greater  with  its  swollen 
tributaries?  Is  this  Christian  citizenship? 
Does  the  farmer  wait  until  the  meat  spoils  ere 
he  applies  the  saline  solution?  Jordan,  in  his 
little  book,  "  The  Power  of  Truth,"  says  that 
"  nine-tenths  of  the  world's  misery  is  pre- 
ventable." As  at  Balaklava,  some  one  has  blun- 
dered.   The  daily  paper  is  the  diary  of  the  un- 


210    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

necessary.  The  Johnstown  flood  was  not  an 
accident ;  it  was  a  crime.  And  there  are  floods 
of  pollution  and  foulness  and  vice  and  villainy 
flowing  down  our  streets,  like  rivers  when  win- 
ter is  broken.  In  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  there 
is  a  man  who  has  been  a  famous  brewer  for 
forty  years,  and  who,  during  the  last  ten  years, 
has  maintained  at  his  own  expense  a  Keeley 
Institute;  which  some  one  compares  to  lighting 
a  fire  and  then  turning  in  the  alarm,  to  see  it 
extinguished.  Napoleon  filled  France  with 
graves,  and  then  he  scattered  broadcast  orphan 
asylums  for  the  sons  and  daughters  of  those 
who  had  fallen  in  battle.  And  these  asylums 
are  pointed  to  to-day  as  an  illustration  of  the 
love  and  thoughtfulness  and  humanity  of  the 
great  Napoleon.  This  tribute  to  the  man,  mark, 
who  once  said  to  Prince  Metternich  when  that 
general  had  objected  that  a  certain  campaign 
proposed  would  cost  the  lives  of  100,000  men, 
"What  are  100,000  men  to  me?"  Another 
case  of  fire-extinguishing.  How  expert  is  so- 
ciety with  the  hose  and  the  hydrant.  Mayhap, 
if  we  took  the  matches  away  from  our  children, 
we  would  have  fewer  conflagrations. 

There  is  one  possibility  hinted  in  the  sub- 
junctive clause  of  this  passage  which  not  un- 
likely strikes  us  with  (juestioning  and  sceptical 
surprise.     "  If  the  salt  have  lost  its  savour." 


THE  RICHES  OF  INFLUENCE    211 

Is  this  possible  ?  Can  salt  lose  its  savour  ?  Such 
seems,  indeed,  to  have  been  the  belief  of  the 
Jews.  Thomson,  in  his  "  Land  and  Book,"  de- 
scribes the  sweeping  out  of  salt  that  had  lost 
its  virtue,  and  the  casting  of  it  into  the  street. 
Salt  that  is  perfectly  pure  does  not,  cannot, 
lose  its  savour,  but  the  common  commodity  we 
purchase  from  the  grocer  is  rarely  pure.  It 
is  mixed  with  many  earthly  ingredients,  and 
of  this  impoverished  amalgam  the  words  are 
true.  It  was  so  in  Palestine.  The  salt  found 
there  was  earthy,  and  when  it  had  deteriorated 
it  was  good  for  naught.  You  could  not  scat- 
ter it  on  the  field,  because  salt  burns  out  the 
grass  and  grain  and  roots.  There  was  noth- 
ing to  do  but  to  thrust  it  out,  and  make  of  it 
a  roadbed  on  the  public  highway. 

So  the  child  of  God  is  human.  He  is  more 
or  less  worldly  at  best.  He  may  lose  his  char- 
acteristic, his  penetrating  mark,  his  apartness 
from  the  world,  his  idiosyncrasy  as  a  holy  man, 
and  then,  alas!  the  saltness  is  gone.  Of  what 
use  is  he  in  the  corporate  body?  He  has  lost 
the  note  of  his  Christian  life.  He  has  missed 
the  intent  of  his  effectual  calling.  He  has  min- 
gled with  the  world,  and  the  world  has  adul- 
terated and  impaired  his  excellence.  He  is  a 
mere  lump  of  common  clay.  He  becomes  a 
castaway  from  the  Kingdom.     Of  what  value 


212    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

is  a  match  that  will  not  light,  or  a  pen  that 
will  not  write,  or  an  automobile  that  will  not 
go,  or  a  watch  that  will  not  keep  time?  If  a 
thing  fails  in  the  purpose  for  which  it  was 
manufactured,  then  it  fails  completely.  It  is 
good  for  nothing  but  to  be  cast  out  and  to  be 
trodden  under  foot  of  men.  What  a  wonder- 
ful thing  is  the  tongue,  but,  when  the  tongue 
loses  its  tang  of  truthfulness,  it  loses  its  witch- 
ery. When  a  woman  loses  the  flower  of  her 
virtue,  the  bloom  has  departed.  When  the 
heart  loses  its  fragrance  of  affection,  the  glory 
hath  gone.  How  noble  is  enthusiasm,  but, 
when  enthusiasm  forfeits  the  salt  of  sincerity, 
how  spurious  and  worthless  and  distasteful! 
In  "  Rab  and  His  Friends,"  we  are  told  an  in- 
cident of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds.  Sir  Joshua  was 
taken  to  see  a  picture.  Being  anxious  to  ad- 
mire it,  he  looked  it  over  with  keen  but  sym- 
pathetic regard.  "  Capital  composition,"  he 
exclaimed :  "  correct  drawing,  colour  tone 
chiaroscuro  excellent,  but — but — but  it  wants 
— hang  it — it  wants — that,"  snapping  his  fin- 
gers. Ah !  it  lacked  the  saltness.  It  lacked 
the  living  touch. 

And,  what  of  the  Church?  Is  the  Church 
to-day  losing  her  Divine  distinction  ?  The  salt- 
ness of  the  Church  is  her  spirituality.  She 
was  appointed  to  be  an  elect  race,  a  royal  priest- 


THE  RICHES  OF  INFLUENCE    213 

hood,  a  holy  nation,  a  people  for  God's  own 
possession.  If  the  Church  is  meant  for  the 
saving  of  the  world,  and  if  she  herself  needs 
saving,  what  is  going  to  be  the  issue?  If  the 
worldliness  about  us  is  ever  to  be  disturbed,  it 
will  be  by  the  unworldliness  of  the  Christian 
communion.  For  no  other  institution  even  pre- 
tends to  any  leavening  aloofness.  And,  if  the 
light  that  ought  to  be  the  peculiar  glory  of 
that  communion  is  darkness,  how  great  is  that 
darkness!  I  have  heard  it  said,  indeed,  that 
the  greatest  problem  before  us  to-day  is  how 
to  convert  the  Church,  The  line  of  demarcation 
between  the  Church  and  the  world,  we  are  being 
told,  has  about  become  obliterated.  The  com- 
munion cup  is  swarming  with  deadly  bacteria. 
This  is  somewhat  of  an  alarming  survey,  but 
facts  are  advanced  to  vindicate  the  verdict. 
And  some  of  them  are  significant  and  stub- 
born. Worldliness  is  the  spirit  of  the  world, 
and  it  is  creeping  into  our  once  holy  places  to 
a  sad  and  sorry  and  sordid  extent.  It  is  com- 
mercialising our  shrines.  It  is  secularising  our 
sacraments.  When  the  Church  of  Christ  elects 
men  to  office  because  of  their  earthly  posses- 
sions, she  is  losing  her  savour.  When  she  judges 
the  success  of  her  ministers  by  her  pew  rentals, 
she  is  losing  her  savour.  When  the  "  multipli- 
cation table  becomes  more  important  than  the 


214    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

Communion  table,"  she  is  losing  her  savour. 
When  she  is  living  for  herself,  she  is  losing  her 
savour.  Salt  lives  not  for  itself.  In  itself 
alone  it  is  a  valueless  staple.  The  Church  that 
is  lukewarm  is  certain  of  censure.  "  I  would 
ye  were  either  cold  or  hot;  but  since  thou  art 
neither  cold  nor  hot,  I  will  spew  thee  out  of  my 
mouth."  The  Church  that  is  exclusive  is  sure 
of  reproof.  The  caste  spirit  in  the  Church 
is  anathema.  "  Rich  and  poor  meet  together; 
the  Lord  is  the  Maker  of  them  all."  The  com- 
mercial spirit  in  the  Church  is  accursed.  The 
Master  flung  the  furniture  down  the  front  steps 
of  the  temple,  saying  as  He  did  so,  "  My  Fa- 
ther's house  is  a  house  of  prayer,  but  ye  have 
made  it  a  den  of  thieves." 

Let  us  take  heed,  beloved,  and  see  to  it  that 
we  lose  not  our  appropriate  and  impregnating 
and  enriching  spice.  If  we  are  to  be  common 
salt,  we  must  go  in  and  out  among  the  common 
people.  Jesus  is  the  Christ  of  common  life. 
"  The  common  people  heard  Him  gladly."  Are 
we  fulfilling  our  duty  to  the  community  ?  When 
the  Church  loses  her  welcome  to  the  unprivi- 
leged, then  her  salt  has  lost  its  sting.  Salt 
must  be  rubbed  into  the  tissue.  We  must  get 
into  touch  with  the  masses.  We  must  break 
down  barriers.  We  are  despatched  to  the  high- 
ways  and  the  hedges   on  a  mission  of  con- 


THE  RICHES  OF  INFLUENCE    215 

straining  love.  If  the  Church  really  wants 
sinners,  there  is  not  a  shadow  of  a  doubt  but 
she  can  have  them.  We  are  to  live  in  the 
world — in  it,  but  not  of  it.  "  That  ye  may 
become  blameless  and  harmless,  children  of 
God,  without  blemish  in  the  midst  of  a  crooked 
and  perverse  generation  among  whom  ye  are 
seen  as  lights  in  the  world,  holding  forth  the 
word  of  life." 


THE    RICHES   OF    REST 


"  Return  unto  thy  rest,  O  my  soul."— Psalm  ii6  :  7. 
"  Soul,  thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years. 
Take  thy  rest."— Luke  12  :  19. 


XI 

THE  RICHES  OF  REST 

THESE  are  monologues  that  two  men 
hold  with  their  souls.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment apostrophe  is  the  cry  of  an 
exile  in  far-away  Babylon,  as  he  sighs 
for  the  gates  of  the  Holy  City  and 
the  steps  of  Jehovah's  temple.  He  is  in 
bondage  in  a  strange  land,  and  he  pines  for 
the  peace  and  fellowship  of  home  as  the 
hart  panteth  after  the  water  brook.  It  is  a 
cry  of  real  homesickness;  "  Return  unto  thy 
rest,  O  my  soul."  The  second  introspection  is 
a  chuckling  soliloquy  of  satisfaction.  The  af- 
fluent lord  is  revelling  in  the  midst  of  his 
storehouses.  He  has  waxed  fat  by  his  wari- 
ness. His  yield  is  large;  his  barns  are  burst- 
ing. So  rapidly  have  his  possessions  come  pil- 
ing in,  that  he  is  confronted  with  the  embar- 
rassment of  the  sheltering  of  the  surplus.  After 
sober  study,  his  plan  mentally  matures  itself, 
and  he  has  decided  on  pulling  down  and  con- 
structing on  more  commensurate  lines.  "  Soul, 
219 


220    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

thou  art  plentifully  supplied  and  secure  for 
many  years.     Now  take  thy  rest." 

There  are  one  or  two  touches  most  vivid, 
and  manifestly  intended,  in  our  New  Testa- 
ment portrait,  that  it  may  be  well  at  the  outset 
to  denote.  How  boldly  interjected,  for  in- 
stance, is  the  consciousness  of  ownership! 
The  Master  has  just  been  saying  that  a  man's 
life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the 
things  which  he  possesseth,  but  this  rich  churl, 
whose  features  he  goes  on  to  sketch,  begins 
straightway  to  enlarge  on  the  overflow  of  his 
assets.  "  My  barns,"  "  my  fruits,"  "  my 
goods,"  "  my  produce,"  "  my  soul."  The 
egotism  is  intentionally  pronounced.  There 
is  a  self-handshaking  that  is  far  from  pleasing. 
"  Shall  I  take  my  bread  and  my  water  and  my 
flesh,  that  I  have  killed  for  my  shearers,  and 
give  it  unto  men,  of  whom  I  know  not  whence 
they  are?  "  It  is  the  inadmirable  vanity  of  the 
mirror.  Then  how  myopic  and  purblind 
the  outlook!  The  philosophy  is  that  of  the 
Epicurean,  only  that  the  reason  annexed  lacks 
the  sweep  and  foresight  of  the  old  Greek 
voluptuary.  "  For  to-morrow  we  die,"  was  the 
voice  of  the  sage.  "  For  there  be  many  years," 
is  the  logic  of  folly.  Then,  too,  how  sug- 
gestive the  wording !  "  Take  thine  ease."  His 
ease  is  a  release.     He  purposeth  in  his  heart 


THE  RICHES  OF  REST  221 

emancipation  from  all  worries  worldly.  But 
it  is  also  an  indulgence.  He  covets  a  chance 
for  the  culture  of  the  carnal.  Rest,  eat,  drink, 
enjoy,  he  advocates,  as  the  quartette  of  bliss- 
ful living.  But  he  hopes  for  even  more,  and 
this  it  is  that  lends  the  deep-seated  pathos  to 
the  portrait.  He  uses  the  same  word  that  the 
Master  employs  in  His  tender  gracious  wel- 
come to  the  weary.  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye 
that  labour,  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give 
you  rest."  Paul  uses  the  word  twice,  to  indi- 
cate spiritual  refreshment.  Ease!  Heart's 
ease!  He  quite  seriously  anticipates  repose  of 
spirit.  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Stand  ye  in  the 
ways,  and  see,  and  ask  for  the  old  paths,  where 
is  the  good  way;  and  walk  therein,  and  ye  shall 
find  rest  for  your  souls." 

Here,  then,  are  two  philosophies  of  rest. 
Rest  in  goods,  and  rest  in  God.  There  can 
be  little  question  that  the  unit  by  which  well- 
nigh  everything  is  gauged  to-day  is  the  former. 
The  ambition  of  the  old  Greeks  was  to  know. 
Their  supreme  aim  was  wisdom.  Their 
crowning  institution,  an  institution  of  learn- 
ing— the  Academy,  the  Lyceum,  the  Porch. 
Athens,  a  much  smaller  city  than  New  York, 
was  the  world's  intellectual  centre.  We  do 
not  forget,  of  course,  that  in  their  temples  of 
fame  are  found  athletes  and  warriors.     But 


222    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

the  conspicuous  niches  were  not  consecrated  to 
a  Themistocles  or  a  Hercules,  but  to  a  Homer, 
a  Socrates,  a  Plato,  an  Aristotle,  a  Herodotus, 
an  ^schylus,  a  Thucydides.  Greece  gazed 
hungry-eyed  on  the  banquet  of  knowledge. 
The  pabulum  was  mental.  But  to-day  the 
gauge  of  measurement  is  material.  It  is 
purple,  and  fine  linen,  and  sumptuous  fare, 
and  bonds,  and  bills  receivable  that  men's  appe- 
tites crave.  The  cult  of  the  stomach  is  more 
in  vogue  than  the  culture  of  the  mind.  That 
was  a  clever  comment  of  Thoreau's,  "  I  cannot 
buy  a  blank  book  any  more  to  write  thoughts 
in;  they  are  all  ruled  for  dollars  and  cents." 

And  the  pathos  of  the  pursuit  is  its  purpose. 
Men  are  endeavouring,  and  hoping,  in  this  way, 
to  find  rest  for  the  soul.  George  Kennan,  in 
his  "  Tent  Life  in  Siberia,"  tells  a  story  about 
his  field-glass.  He  says,  "  I  shall  never  forget 
the  utter  astonishment  with  which  a  band  of 
natives  once  looked  through  my  field-glass.  I 
gave  the  glass  to  one  of  them,  and  told  him 
to  look  through  it  at  another  native,  who 
chanced  to  be  working  out  on  the  plain,  per- 
haps 500  yards  away.  The  expression  of 
blank  surprise  on  his  face,"  says  Mr.  Kennan, 
"  was  very  amusing.  He  thought  that  the 
glass  had  actually  transported  the  other  man 
physically,  to  within  a  few  feet  of  where  he 


THE  RICHES  OF  REST  223 

stood.     And  as  he  kept  looking  through  it,  he 
stretched  out  his  hand  to  touch  him."     And 
how  many  there  are  to-day,  who  are  doing 
thus-wise,  with  the  spiritual.     They  are  using 
their  possessions,  as  a  glass,  to  bring  its  peace 
and  happiness  within  easy  grasp,  forgetting  all 
the  while,  that  the  spiritual  is  not  a  remote 
and  distal  beatitude,  and  even  though  it  were 
that  it  could  not  be  seen  through  a  visible  in- 
strument, being  itself  invisible;  the  medium  is 
irrelevant  and  opaque.     Microscopes  used  for 
seeing  molecules  are  of  no  avail   for  seeing 
motives.     Science  converts  gases  into  liquids, 
liquids  into  solids,  motion  into  heat,  heat  into 
motion,  but  one  thing  Science  has  not  yet  ful- 
filled.    She  has  not  converted  riches  into  rest 
nor  possessions  into  peace.     She  has  so   far 
failed  to  transmute  economic  standards  into 
soul  assets.    No  spiritual  alchemy  has  effected 
this.      To    our    Lord    in    the    wilderness    the 
Tempter  said,  "  Command  that  these  stones  be 
made  bread."     It  was  a  bait  addressed  to  the 
appetite.    Use  Thy  divine  power  to  satisfy  the 
flesh.     To  which  the  Master  replied,   "  Man 
shall  not  live  by  bread  alone."    And  it  is  the 
crowning  peril  of  the  age.    Men  are  trying  to 
live  on  bread  alone.    It  is  what  the  old  prophet 
described  as  "  feeding  on  ashes."    "  Covetous- 
ness,   which  is  idolatry."     What   are   ashes? 


224    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

Ashes  are  the  relics  that  remain  after  every- 
thing useful  has  been  consumed.  "  Every- 
thing in  this  world  that  will  not  burn  is  some- 
thing that  has  been  burned  already."  Only 
Satan  can  feed  upon  ashes.  Was  not  this  the 
sentence  pronounced  ?  "  Dust  shalt  thou  eat 
all  the  days  of  thy  life."  Man  cannot  be  nour- 
ished on  the  meat  which  perisheth.  His  spirit 
must  be  fed.  He  needs  the  living  bread,  which 
cometh  down  from  Heaven  and  giveth  life 
unto  the  world. 

The  passion  to-day,  alas !  is  for  things.  The 
keyword  of  the  age  is  more.  Things  are 
graded  by  their  bigness.  Nothing  imports  but 
dividends.  To  have  more  than  one's  neighbour 
is  the  ultimate  of  contentful  living.  We  build 
mammoth  mansions,  whose  very  vastness 
overwhelms.  The  home  is  lost  in  the  house. 
We  imprison  ourselves  in  palaces,  and  become 
serfs,  not  kings,  as  the  spider  is  sometimes 
tangled  in  his  own  web.  The  body  fares 
sumptuously,  but  the  poor  lean  heart  is 
pinched  and  famished.  There  is  a  plant  in 
South  Africa  called  the  Nardoo  plant.  Its 
fruit  is  delicious.  It  satisfies  the  hunger,  but 
it  does  not  nourish  the  blood.  Those  who  feed 
on  it  die  of  starvation.  And  much  like  this 
is  our  present-day  passion  for  the  earthly.  One 
of  the  highest  ladies  in  the  social  world  said 


THE  RICHES  OF  REST  225 

but  recently,  that  "  Extravagance  is  a  passport 
into  society."  However  this  may  be,  it  is  cer- 
tainly not  a  passport  into  peace.  We  have  a 
new  pessimism  to-day — the  pessimism  that  is 
born  of  luxury.  It  has  reduced  lassitude  and 
ennui  to  a  fine  art.  Society  to-day  is  living  a 
feverish  life,  and  the  poor  patient  languishes. 
She  cannot  eat !  She  cannot  sleep !  She  can- 
not work!  She  cannot  rest!  Everything  is 
wrong,  because  she  is  wrong.  There  is  an  old 
Greek  legend,  that  after  the  death  of  Orpheus, 
his  lyre  floated  down  "  the  swift  Hebrus  to  the 
Lesbian  shore."  It  was  picked  up  by  a  fisher- 
man who,  not  knowing  what  the  strange  in- 
strument was,  cut  the  strings,  and  used  them 
for  the  mending  of  his  nets.  The  framework 
he  utilized  in  the  building  of  a  fire,  to  cook  the 
fish  which  he  caught.  That  surely  was  a  pite- 
ous tragedy,  worthy  of  Melpomene's  Muse. 
But  the  man  who  takes  the  harp  of  life,  and 
cuts  the  strings  thereof,  and  makes  of  it  a 
mesh  for  greedy  grasping,  then  sets  his  pas- 
sions on  fire  and  feeds  his  body  and  turns  it 
into  a  trough  for  gratification,  and  gorge,  and 
gluttony — that  is  a  more  piteous  tragedy. 
That  is  as  though  our  noble  Museum,  so  rich 
in  treasures,  was  converted  into  a  stable. 
That  is  the  devastation  of  the  city  of  Man- 
Soul.     It   is   the    fulfilment   of   Madame   du 


226    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

Chatelet's  astonishing  estimate,  when  she 
wrote  in  her  diary,  that  "  we  have  nothing  else 
to  do  in  this  world  but  to  obtain  agreeable 
sensations."  Or,  of  Catherine  Sforza's  deliv- 
erance, when  she  exclaimed,  "  Eat,  sleep, 
gratify  your  lust — all  else  is  little  worth." 
Last  summer  up  on  the  Saguenay  River,  I 
watched  the  fishermen  fishing  with  drugs. 
And  this  is  fishing  with  drugs.  These  are  they 
of  whom  Jesus  speaks,  when  He  says,  "  Thou 
fool,  .  .  so  is  he  that  layeth  up  treasure  for 
himself,  and  is  not  rich  toward  God." 

"  Thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up  ";  now  sit 
down  and  enjoy  them.  It  is  the  rationale  of 
the  worldling.  But  the  order  of  the  old 
prophet  is  otherwise;  "  Why  spend  your 
money  for  that  which  is  not  bread,  and  your 
labour  for  that  which  satisfieth  not?  Eat  ye 
that  which  is  good,  and  let  your  soul  delight 
itself  in  fatness."  A  man's  life  consisteth  in 
what  he  is,  not  what  he  has.  And  if  we  are 
souls,  how  puerile  to  hope  for  satisfaction  in 
things.  Is  it  not  passing  and  puzzling  strange 
that  the  only  thing  about  us  that  we  are  not 
afraid  of  losing  is  the  only  thing  we  possess 
that  is  priceless?  "  Hear  and  your  soul  shall 
live."  Madame  de  Chantal  cried,  "  There  is 
something  in  me  that  has  never  been  satisfied." 
It  is  the  cry  of  the  deep  within.     Give  a  man 


THE  RICHES  OF  REST  227 

all  the  goods  he  wanted,  and  it  would  be  his 
hungriest  moment.  As  Voltaire  once  re- 
marked, "  Man  is  ever  in  search  of  something 
more."  I  believe  in  food  because  I  am  famish- 
ing. And  I  believe  in  Christ  because  I  am 
weary.  If  this  bank  does  not  exist,  then  I  am 
bankrupt  truly.  Verily,  indeed,  nothing  about 
the  great  Teacher  so  convinces  me  of  His  un- 
earthliness  as  His  standard  of  estimates. 
When  I  walk  in  His  company,  I  am  travelling 
in  a  foreign  country.  The  coinage  is  differ- 
ent, the  values,  the  vernacular.  With  Him  the 
heart  is  the  gold  measure.  His  beatitudes  are 
for  the  poor,  the  pure,  the  meek,  the  mournful, 
the  merciful.  Every  time  the  crown  falls  it 
reveals  the  royalty  of  the  inner  life.  The  feel- 
ing that  grips  me  when  I  study  the  life  of  this 
man,  is  that  all  the  many  comforts  He  did  not 
have  were  not  really  essential.  He  would  have 
been  nothing  the  happier  had  He  had  them  all. 
The  body  mattered  little,  it  was  the  soul  of 
things  He  coveted.  How  does  one  front  duty 
in  the  morning?  Is  there  a  sense  of  renewal 
in  the  fresh  greeting  of  the  dawn?  What  are 
the  feelings  of  the  heart  in  the  struggle  for 
bread  and  butter?  What  spirit  do  we  carry 
in  the  noonday  of  prosperity?  How  do  we 
bear  up  under  the  head  winds  of  adversity? 
When  the  earthly  windows  are  darkened,  is 


228    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

there  any  glimpse  of  the  land  that  is  afar  off, 
and  the  peaks  of  the  Eternal  City  of  Light? 
What  is  our  attitude  toward  little  children  ?  Is 
there  an  encouragement  in  our  tone  that 
warms  each  young  enthusiasm?  Is  there  a 
growing  tenderness  of  eye,  and  voice,  and 
word,  and  judgment,  and  feeling?  Is  the 
greatest  sorrow  of  the  world  to  us  its  sin? 
Are  we  keeping  the  gloss  and  polish  on  our 
immortal  natures  ?  Is  there  a  purity  of  imagi- 
nation that  thinks  nothing  unclean?  Are  we 
mastering  life's  greatest  lesson,  that  we  need 
God?  What  effect  has  our  outward  circum- 
stance on  our  inward  life?  Are  integrity  and 
uprightness  grounded  on  the  Eternal  Right- 
eousness? These  are  the  great  issues.  These 
are  the  things  that  count.  Ah,  we  have  such 
an  inordinate  and  over-developed  bump  for 
belittling  great  things,  and  for  greatening  little 
things ! 

But  rest  is  not  found  by  way  of  fruits  and 
goods,  according  to  the  Psalmist.  Rest  is  not 
found  in  accumulation  or  aggrandisement. 
This  way  lies  worry.  This  is  looking  down  a 
gold  mine  for  a  star.  "  Return  unto  thy  rest, 
O  my  soul."  Return.  Then  there  has  been  a 
wandering.  We  have  drifted  away  from  the 
rest-centre.  At  the  heart  of  the  cyclone  there 
is  a  point  of  perfect  peace.    All  is  quiet  there, 


THE  RICHES  OF  REST  229 

while  without  is  convulsion,  and  ferment,  and 
havoc,  and  waste,  and  ruin.  And  our  trouble 
is  in  abiding  at  the  circumference  of  things. 
The  pitch  and  tilt  of  the  vessel  is  not  felt  amid- 
ship  as  it  is  in  the  stern,  or  the  bow.  How 
fast  the  rim  of  the  carriage  wheel  revolves! 
How  slowly  the  axle  moves!  If  we  live  near 
the  centre  we  will  be  troubled  but  little  with 
the  shock  of  the  world's  disquiet.  In  the  cen- 
tre of  the  storm,  Christ  can  have  His  temple 
of  peace.  In  the  push  of  a  great  mob,  surging 
into  a  building  for  a  seat,  it  is  foolish  to  say, 
"  I  will  keep  still."  But  it  is  wise  to  say,  "  I  will 
keep  calm."  Rest  is  not  stillness;  it  is 
calmness.  "  Thou  wilt  keep  him  in  perfect 
peace,  whose  mind  is  stayed  on  Thee."  Ah, 
but  let  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  was  in  the 
hour  of  besiegement  and  battle  that  this  song 
was  sung.  Perhaps  it  is  worth  noting  that  the 
word  rest  in  our  text  is  plural.  "  Return  unto 
thy  rests,  O  my  soul."  It  is  the  plural  of  in- 
tensity. It  is  the  cry  of  a  tempest-tossed  man, 
seeking  foothold  and  anchorage.  The  soul  of 
Israel  can  never  be  at  peace  until  it  is  sheltered 
beneath  the  shadow  of  its  eternal  home.  Nor 
can  we.  Unrest  comes  from  making  self  the 
centre.  Rest  comes  from  making  Christ  the 
centre.  "  These  things  have  I  spoken  unto  you 
that  in  Me  ye  may  have  peace."    Home  is  life's 


230    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

social  point  of  convergence.  The  business 
man  goes  out  in  the  morning  to  the  call  of 
labour.  He  returns  at  night  to  the  sweet  sanc- 
tity of  rest.    And  God  is  our  home. 

"  Our  God,  our  help  in  ages  past, 
Our  hope  for  years  to  come  ; 
Our  shelter  from  the  stormy  blast. 
And  our  Eternal  Home." 

Then  it  is  thy  rest.  "  Jehovah  preserveth 
the  simple.  I  was  brought  low,  and  He  saved 
me."  So  the  prodigal  was  brought  low,  when 
he  strayed  into  the  far  country.  He  found 
no  place  of  repentance  till  he  turned  his  steps 
to  the  old  fireside  and  the  Father.  No  matter 
how  deep  down  he  had  fallen,  he  was  his 
father's  boy  still.  The  filial  likeness  may  have 
been  defaced,  but  it  never  could  have  been 
effaced.  There  were  strong  family  lines  that 
were  inerasable.  The  old  home  was  his  still, 
even  though  he  had  wandered.  As  St.  Ber- 
nard puts  it,  "  The  fine  gold  may  become  dim, 
but  it  is  still  gold."  "  My  Father,"  he  cries. 
"  This,  my  son,  was  dead."  "  Behold  the 
fowls  of  the  air,  they  sow  not,  neither  do  they 
reap,  nor  gather  into  barns,  and  yet  Your 
Heavenly  Father  feedeth  them."  God  is  never 
called  the  Father  of  fowls.  "  Unto  which  of 
the  Angels  said  He  at  any  time.  Thou  art  my 
Son."      God    is   never   called   the   Father   of 


THE  RICHES  OF  REST  231 

Angels.  God  is  the  Father  of  the  human 
Spirit.  He  is  the  home  of  the  human  Soul. 
He  is  the  soul's  rest-centre !  Thy  rest !  Thine 
own!  Thy  very  own!  Heart  of  mine,  claim 
thy  birthright !  "  Return  unto  thy  rest,  O  my 
soul !  " 

In  that  masterly  allegory  of  Maeterlinck's, 
"  The  Blue-bird,"  this  is  the  rock-bottom  truth 
that  is  enforced.  It  is  a  message  to  the  restless 
spirit  of  the  age.  The  central  idea  is  the  quest 
of  the  soul,  and  that  is  more  than  happiness; 
it  is  righteousness;  it  is  joy;  it  is  peace;  it  is 
the  eternal  facts  of  the  spiritual  order.  The 
children  in  their  search  travel  afar  into  the 
land  of  memory,  then  on  into  the  unborn  fu- 
ture, but  the  bird  is  found  only  when  they 
return  to  their  own  humble  cottage.  When 
Tiltyl  arrives  home,  and  takes  the  dove  from 
its  little  wicker  cage,  and  gives  it  to  the  sick 
child,  it  turns  straightway  to  blue.  "  Hullo  I 
Why,  he's  blue;  he's  my  turtle-dove.  We  went 
so  far  to  find  him,  and  he  was  right  here  all 
the  while."  The  bird  became  blue  when  they 
gave  it  away.  The  secret  was  not  in  possess- 
ing, but  in  sharing.  The  blue-bird  in  the  land 
of  Memory  turned  black,  the  one  in  the  land  of 
Hope  turned  pink.  They  changed  colour  when 
they  were  caged.  And  the  one  in  the  forest 
could  not  be  caught. 


232    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

How  true  of  life!  Everything  changes 
colour  when  it  is  caged.  Hoard  a  blessing, 
and  it  will  straightway  begin  to  lose  its  lustre. 
Lay  up  treasure  on  earth,  and  moth  and  rust 
will  instantly  begin  their  cankering  mischief. 
The  blue-bird  of  rest  is  not  found  afar,  nor  in 
luxuries,  nor  in  accumulation,  nor  in  vaults, 
nor  in  any  species  of  confinement,  nor  in  any 
search — it  matters  not  how  successful.  The 
end  of  the  mountain  climb  is  so  often  a  cold, 
barren,  cheerless  peak,  with  rocks  and  shrub- 
bery shutting  out  even  the  view.  As  Light 
remarks  to  Tiltyl,  "  These  are  dangerous  and 
will  break  your  will."  It  is  found  in  return- 
ing. It  is  found  far  back  in  the  crib,  in  the 
cottage,  in  the  nursery  of  childhood.  It  is 
found  in  simple  household  joys.  We  must 
become  as  little  children  if  we  would  enter  this 
kingdom.  "  Oh,  that  I  had  wings  like  a  dove, 
for  then  would  I  fly  away  and  be  at  rest." 
Nay,  nay,  this  is  the  cry  of  a  coward,  who 
would  fain  shirk  his  duty.  He  was  not  look- 
ing heavenward,  but  earthward,  when  this 
longing  leaped  from  his  lips.  "  Return," 
rather,  "  unto  thy  rest,  O  my  soul."  "  For 
thus  saith  the  Lord,  in  returning  and  rest  shall 
ye  be  saved." 

In  that  beautiful  story  of  Henry  W.  Grady, 
we  are  told  how  from  the  disillusionment  of 


THE  RICHES  OF  REST  233 

his  editorial  ambitions  he  one  day  harked  back 
to  the  home  of  his  boyhood  to  spend  a  few 
days  with  his  aged  mother.  He  asked  her  to 
just  let  him  play  the  boy  again  around  the  old 
barn.  "  Let  me  say  my  prayers,  mother,  just 
as  I  did  when  I  was  a  child."  And  for  two  or 
three  weeks  he  was  born  again,  into,  the  rich- 
ness and  zest  and  glory  of  childhood.  And, 
says  Grady,  speaking  of  it  afterwards,  "  My 
vision  was  restored."  It  is  the  vision  of  the 
poet. 

"  Backward,  turn  backward,  oh  Time,  in  thy  flight. 
Make  me  a  child  again  just  for  to-night." 

"  Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  He  may  be  found ; 
call  ye  upon  Him  while  He  is  near.  Let  the 
wicked  forsake  his  way,  and  the  unrighteous 
man  his  thought,  and  let  him  return  unto  the 
Lord."  "  For  ye  were  going  astray  like  sheep, 
but  are  now  returned  unto  the  Shepherd  and 
Bishop  of  your  souls."  How  beautiful  the 
word !  I  wonder  not  that  Faber,  speaking  of 
it,  says,  "  Let  us  linger  here  a  moment  and 
suck  the  honeycomb."  So  many  are  spending 
their  lives  chasing  rest.  Foolish  people!  As 
if  we  could  ever  find  rest  by  chasing  it.  The 
cure  for  care  is  not  to  travel  around  the  globe, 
but  to  penetrate  to  the  heart  of  its  divine  pur- 
pose and  meaning.     Rest  is  not  something  to 


234    THE  UNSEARCHABLE  RICHES 

be  chased  and  imprisoned.  It  is  something  to 
be  received.  "  Wait  upon  the  Lord,  and  He 
shall  strengthen  thine  heart."  It  is  a  gift  of- 
fered for  the  asking.  It  is  not  in  Europe;  it 
is  at  thy  feet;  it  is  following  thine  every  foot- 
step. It  is  a  legacy.  It  is  a  guest  knocking 
for  entrance.  Receive  the  rest-Giver.  A  bot- 
tle with  a  cork  in  it  cannot  be  filled  by  the 
ocean.  Open  thine  heart  to  thine  heart's  Mas- 
ter. "  Intoxicate  yourselves  by  all  means," 
says  Baudelaire,  "  but  with  virtue,  not  wine." 
Pile  up  possessions,  but  let  them  be  the  pos- 
sessions of  the  interior  life.  "  Turn  ye  to  the 
stronghold,  ye  prisoners  of  hope."  Back  to 
the  rest-centre.  Lean  on  the  rest-Giver.  Je- 
sus is  the  pillow  for  a  weary  world.  Leave 
the  outskirts.  Come  to  the  central  shrine,  the 
secret  place,  the  habitation  of  holiness  and 
quiet.  "  He  that  dwelleth  in  the  secret  place 
of  the  Most  High  shall  abide  under  the 
shadow  of  the  Almighty."  In  childhood  I 
have  seen  hens  hatching  tlie  eggs  of  ducks. 
Then  when  the  little  duckling  came  out  of  the 
shell,  and  heard  the  cry  of  its  own  mother,  by 
a  marvellous  instinct  it  flew  to  her,  and  took 
refuge  under  her  wing.  So  man,  outside  of 
God,  is  a  motherless  bird.  He  needs  the  breast 
of  Deity,  on  which  to  lie.  He  is  never  truly 
homed  until  he  is  homed  in  the  Eternal.    "  Oh 


THE  RICHES  OF  REST  235 

God,  Thou  hast  created  me  for  Thyself,"  and 
I  can  never  find  the  blessed  blue-bird  of  peace, 
until  I  find  it  in  Thee. 

"  Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul, 
Let  me  to  thy  bosom  fly." 


MISSIONARY 


ROBERT  E.  SPEER  June 

Christianity  and  the  Nations 

The   Duff   Lectures   for    1910. 

8vo,  cloth,  net    t2.00. 

Among  the  many  notable  volumes  that  have  resulted 
from  the  well-known  Duff  foundation  Lectureship  this  new 
work  embodying  the  series  given  by  Mr.  Robert  E.  Speer 
in  Edinburgh,  Glasgow  and  Aberdeen,  will  r3«ik  among  the 
most  important.  The  general  theme,  "The  Rbilex  Influence 
of  Missions  upon  the  Nations,"  suggests  a  large,  important, 
and  most  interesting  work.  The  name  of  the  lecturer  is 
sufficient  guarantee  of  the  method  of  treatment, 

HENRY  H.  JESS  UP  March 

Fifty-three  Years  in  Syria 

Introduction  by  James  S.  Dennis.     Two  volumes,  illustrated, 

8vo,  cloth,  boxed,  net  $5.00. 

This  autobiographical  record  of  half  a  century's  experi- 
ence in  the  mission  field  of  Syria,  is  rich  in  color,  narra- 
tive and  insight.  It  is  also  incidentally  a  history  of  the 
mission  work  for  the  period  but  told  with  a  personal  touch 
and  from  the  innermost  standpoint.  It  is  a  pioneer's  story, 
and  as  such  never  lacks  in  interest, 

JULIUS  RICHTER  March 

A  History  of  Protestant  Missions  in  the 
Near  East  svo,  cioth,  net  $2.50. 

A  companion  volume  to  "A  History  of  Missions  in 
India"  by  this  great  authority.  The  progress  of  the  gospel 
is  traced  in  Asia  Minor,  Persia,  Arabia,  Syria  and  Egypt. 
Non-sectarian  in  spirit  and  thoroughly  comprehensive  in 
scope.  "It  is  truly  a  notable  work  and  can  be  endorsed 
in  unqualified  terms. — John  R.  Mott. 

WILLIAM  EDWARD  GARDNER  February 

Winners  of  the  World  During  Twenty 

Centuries    Adapted  for  Boys  and  Girls. 
A  Story  and  a  Study  of  Missionary  Effort  from  the  Time  of 

Paul  to  the  Present  Day.     Cloth,  net  6oc;  paper,  net  30c. 

Brief  sketches  of  great  missionaries  in  chronological 
order,  extending  down  through  Augustine  and  Boniface 
the  apostles  to  England  and  Germany,  Xavier  in  Japan,  and 
Brainerd  among  the  Indians,  to  Carey,  Moffat  and  Living- 
stone and  Missionaries  of  our  own  day.  Intensely  stimulat- 
ing and  suggestive. 


ESSAYS,  ADDRESSES,  Etc. 


CHARLES  F.  AKED 

The  Lord's  Prayer 

Its  Meaning  and  Message  lb-day.     Net  $i.oo. 

A  series  of  seven  sermons  on  the  Lord's  Prayer  showing 
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votional and  expository  and  stimulating,  but  not  exegetical 
nor  technical.  The  application  to  modern  conditions  is  ex- 
ceptionally good. 

J.  REID  HO  WATT 

The  Next  Life 

Light  on  the  Worlds  Beyond.     i2mo,  cloth,  net  $i.eo. 

A  very  practical  discussion  of  the  question  of  life  be- 
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very  dispassionate  examination  of  what  the  scripture  has 
to  say  on  the  subject  without  reference  to  traditional  theories 
concerning  it.  It  will  be  found  a  most  helpful  and  reassur- 
ing book,  and  will  be  welcomed  by  all  who  honestly  seek 
light. 

R.   A.   TORREY 

The  Holy  Spirit 

As   Revealed  in   the   Scriptures  and   in   Personal   Experience. 
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Dr.  Torrey  has  already  written  upon  this  theme,  but 
never  so  fully  as  in  this  new  volume.  It  will  prove  one  of 
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JAMES  M.  BUCKLEY 

The  Wrong  and  Peril  of  Woman 

Suffrage     i^mo,  cloth,  net  75c. 

"Dedicated  to  men  and  women  who  look  before  they 
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"Dr.  Buckley  is  dispassionate,  calm  and  sane.  He  pre- 
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in  opposition  to  the  clamor  for  suffrage." — Detroit  Pree  Press. 

W.  L.  WATKINSON 

The  Fatal  Barter  and  Other  Sermons 

i2mo,   cloth,  net   $1.00. 
Another  volume  of  sermons  by  the  "preachers'  preacher" 
along   the   lines  he   has   made   so   distinctly   his  own;   rich   in 
illustration  and  quotation  and  both  refreshing  and  illuminat- 
ing. 


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HENRY  W.  CLARK 

Laws  of  the  Inner  Kingdom 

•    i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.25. 

A  series  of  discriminating  and  profitable  discussions  of 
the  laws,  operative  in  spiritual  life,  by  author  of  "The 
Philosophy  of  Christian  Experience."  Under  Mr.  Clark's 
treatment  the  laws  of  spiritual  life  become  as  distinct  and 
real  as  the  laws  of  physics  or  biology.  At  the  same  time 
there  is  nothing  fanciful  or  forced  in  these  discussions.  It 
there  is  nothing  fanciful  or  forced  in  these  discussions. 

DOREMUS    SCUPPER 

The  Passion  for  Reality 

Net  50c. 

A  discussion  of  the  growing  demand  for  sincerity  in 
every  walk  of  life,  evidencing  broad  culture  and  keen  insight 
on  the  writer's  part.  His  quotations  show  extended  reading 
and  his  obsei^ations  wide  experience.  It  is  primarily  a 
young  man's  book  and  deals  with  the  practical  rather  than 
the  theoretical  aspect  of  all  questions. 

PERCY  C.  AIMS  WORTH 

The  Pilgrim  Church  and  Other  Sermons 

Cloth,   net  $1.25. 

Sir  Robertson  Nicoll  says:  "Every  page  and  almost 
every  sentence  is  striking.  It  is  above  all  forthright,  simple 
and  thrusting.  Mr.  Ainsworth's  sermons  have  an  extraord- 
inary reality.  They  are  sagacious  and  often  beautiful,  but 
they  are  more  than  that.  They  have  each  a  central  thought 
unfolding  itself  and  blossoming  out  into  striking  and  often 
profound  reflections.  He  has  seized,  for  example,  the  great 
lessons  of  such  books  as  "Wilhelm  Meister,"  that  we  often 
imagine  we  have  come  to  the  end  of  the  book  when  we  have 
really  come  to  the  end  of  the  first  chapter The  ser- 
mons are  saturated  with  the  true  evangelical  spirit.  This  is 
a  book  which  must  inevitably  find  its  way  into  the  hands 
of  every  preacher  worthy  of  the  name  and  multitudes 
who  are  not  preachers  will  find  in  it  the  help  that  they 
need.      It  is  truly   a  golden  book." 

DEVOTIONAL  STUDY 

What  Jesus  Said 

The  Great  Discourse  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God. 

i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.25. 

We  have  red  letter  Bibles  with  the  words  of  Christ  so 
indicated;  we  have  also  unified  Gospels  giving  a  harmonious 
record  of  all  the  message  of  the  four  Gospels;  but  here  we 
have  the  words  or  sayings  of  Jesus  compiled  topically,  with- 
out extraneous  matter,  so  that  the  reader  finds  at  a  glance 
all  that  Jesus  said  upon  any  given  subject — one  is  surprised 
to  find  how  extended  and  varied  are  the  themes  treated. 
The  book  meets  a  distinct  want. 


ESSAYS,  ADDRESSES,  Etc. 


JAMES  I.    VANCE 

Tendency  :   The  Effect  of  Trend  and  Drift 
in  the  Development  of  Life, 

i2ino,    cloth,    net    $1.25. 

"Aims  primariljr  at  helping  young  men  so  that  they  will 
turn  their  lives  in  the  right  direction  at  the  very  stait. 
These  discussions  are  alive.  They  are  full  of  suggestive 
thoughts.  They  cannot  fail  to  inspire.  They  deal  with  the 
very  conditions  in  which  men  find  themselves,  and  they  are 
apt.     They  are  bound  to  do  good.' — C.  E.  World. 

/.  H.  JOWETT 

The  Transfigured  Church 

lamo,  cloth,  net  I1.25. 
_  A  truly  remarkable  portrayal  of  what  the  Church  might 
be  if  it  fully  availed  itself  of  all  the  forces  and  powers  at  its 
disposal.  The  great  Birmingham  preacher  is  seen  in  this  vol- 
ume at  his  very  best  and  the  remarkable  skill  in  expression, 
in  clarity  of  thought  and  breadth  of  sympathy  are  manifest 
on  every  page. 

HENRY  W.  CLARK 

Laws  of  the  Inner  Kingdom 

i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.25. 

"This  is  a  distinctly  Christian  study  of  the  laws  of 
spiritual  life  and  experience.  The  book  is  thoughtful,  rev- 
erent, sincere  and  scholarly  and  will  be  of  profit  to  the 
one   who    reads   it   carefully." — Journal   and   Messenger. 

PERCY  C.  AINS WORTH 

The  Pilgrim  Church  and  Other  Sermons 

i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.25. 

Sir  Robertson  Nicoll  says:  "Every  page  and  almost  every 
sentence  is  striking.  This  is  a  book  which  must  inevitably 
find  its  way  into  the  hands  of  every  preacher  worthy  of  the 
name  and  multitudes  who  are  not  preachers  will  find  in  it 
the  help  that  they  need.     It  is  truly  a  golden  book." 

W.    L.    W ATKINSON 

The  Fatal  Barter  and  Other  Sermons 

lamo,  cloth,  net  $1.00. 

"Reveals  the  secret  of  the  eagerness  with  which  the  au- 
thor is  heard  in  his  homeland  and  in  this  country,  at  North- 
field  and  elsewhere.  He  is  evangelical  in  his  teaching,  loyal 
to  the  Scriptures,  but  his  spirit  is  modern,  and  one  of  the 
chief  charms  of  his  sermons  is  in  the  application  of  the 
changeless  truth  to  the  needs  and  conditions  of  our  day." — 
Lutheran   Observer. 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


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